Dim as an Ember
by Pearlynn
Summary: Our world used to be a magical place, with emperors, kings, lords, and chiefs. Princes and princesses and the elaborate parties they attended. A world where balls were held and the people of our country gathered in camaraderie. A world that disappeared forever. Zutara Anastasia AU.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA**_

 _ **A/N** So I've decided to post this story after it's been sitting in my drafts for FOUR YEARS. I put it on the back burner because I had seen someone do an Anastasia AU for Zutara, but then I realized it wasn't the same as mine so here we are. _

_Just a little background into this: I'm modeling it after the 1997 movie Anastasia, obviously, and there is no magical element to it like there was with Rasputin. There's still bending, but it's very rare and hardly seen in this universe. It takes place about five hundred years after a war ended with the passing of Sozin's Comet. You could say it's technically in the Avatar universe, but it's not. Just hinted at, mostly. This story will be about 6 chapters long, if I don't plan on extending it past what happens in the movie._

* * *

 _ **Chapter One**_

* * *

 _Our world used to be a magical place, with emperors, kings, lords, and chiefs. Princes and princesses and the elaborate parties they attended. A world where balls were held and the people of our country gathered in camaraderie._

 _A world that disappeared forever._

 _We were celebrating the anniversary of the passing of Sozin's Comet, hundreds of years since the end of an ever-lasting war. In the palace we came together to dance, to sing, to drink in happiness._

 _I had arrived after the festivities had started, where people were dancing together in harmony and drinking to the spirits beyond. I could see my family as they celebrated, my brother the Fire Lord. His beautiful wife and young daughter._

 _And my beloved nephew, Prince Zuko._

 _His smile was beaming that night, his laughter filling the room as the music played and he danced with the noble girls. He snuck sweets, and a sip or two from his father's goblet of wine. That night, he was jubilant..._

"Uncle! Uncle!" Zuko squealed as he ran towards the man sitting near the throne. He wrapped his arms around the older man and exclaimed, "Uncle Iroh! How was Ba Sing Se?"

Iroh chuckled and patted his nephew on the shoulder. "Oh, it was wonderful, my nephew. In fact, while I was there I found something for you."

He pulled a small, rectangular package out of his pocket and handed it to Zuko, who was practically bouncing in his spot. The young prince took the box and unraveled the green ribbon surrounding it. Once the lid was lifted, waiting inside was a small sheath. Zuko grasped it, grin widening as he pulled a dagger out of its casing. On the blade was an inscription. Zuko narrowed his eyes as he read it aloud: "'Never give up without a fight...'"

"I thought of you when I found it," Iroh stated as he leaned back in his seat. "I wanted you to have something that would remind you of me when I return to the walled city."

Zuko looked up from the blade and pouted, "You don't have to go, do you? You just got back!"

"My place is no longer here in the Fire Nation," Iroh sighed as he shook his head. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small disk, turning it in his fingers before handing it over to his nephew. "Here. This is also for you."

Zuko took the disk and brought it close to his face, inspecting the tiny details. On one side was a simple painting of a white lotus, and he recognized it as Iroh's favorite Pai Sho tile. He flipped it over and read the miniscule words inscribed on the back:

 _"A long, long way to Ba Sing Se."_

Zuko giggled as he added, "And the girls in the city, they look so pretty!"

Iroh laughed as well while he rubbed Zuko affectionately on the top of his head with the palm of his hand. Zuko swatted his hand away then readjusted his topknot, all while grinning ear to ear. Iroh gave him a cheeky grin in return before his attention was diverted to the front of the room, where a ruckus had sprung up at the entrance to the hall. His smile fell and Zuko watched where his uncle's eyes had gone to spot a cloaked man entering the room.

 _Zhao had once been a servant of the royal family; an Admiral in the Fire Lord's navy. But his constant war mongering had angered my brother. Though Ozai was not the most peaceful of men, he knew the consequences of waging war on the other nations. He had learned from our ancestors, from the Fire Sages warning him of the punishment the spirits bestowed on our people the last time they began a war. He would not make the same mistake. Nor would he risk the honor of the Fire Nation by even associating with a man with a mind of cogs and coal._

"Zhao!" Ozai's voice boomed over the dwindling music, his steps now echoing through the quieting hall. "You are not welcome here! Get out!"

The other man chuckled, his sharp teeth gleaming in the party lights. He ran a hand through his gray hair, then rubbed his sideburns as his wicked smile remained as he spoke. "Am I not? Why, I thought this party was for all citizens of the Fire Nation!"

"That privilege was taken from you the moment you tried to start a war!" Ozai exclaimed, his fists starting to heat with flames. "I order you to leave the palace, at once!"

There was another bark of laughter from Zhao before his Cheshire smile turned to a scowl worthy of a goblin. "What a shame. Because I came solely to tell you that your time as Fire Lord will soon be over. The whole line of Agni will end in a fortnight, and the people of the Fire Nation will be free of your passive rule! You are not worthy of the title of Fire Lord, Ozai."

"Unlike you, Zhao, I have learned from the mistakes of our ancestors," the Fire Lord bellowed in return, causing the people around him to shrink away from the forceful nature of his voice. "Now leave before I have to make you."

 _In the end, Zhao left without another word. But his warnings didn't settle well with the people of the Fire Nation. Whispers of rebellion spread like wildfire through the streets of the capital, soon stirring riots that could not be contained._

 _The people reached the walls of the palace one night and determined to get inside. Armed with their firebending and other weapons, the people attacked the gates and broke in. No one was safe..._

Zuko ran alongside Iroh, dressed in his sleeping clothes and his long hair out of its traditional phoenix tail. The shouts of the servants and guards echoed around the halls, as were the cries of his little sister, Azula. He could see his mother holding her and running ahead of them, her eyes scared but her voice firm as she ordered the guests to the tunnels below the palace.

The prince's eyes widened and he stopped short, suddenly remembering that he had forgotten his most important treasures. He turned on his heels and sprinted back towards his rooms, gasping something about his dagger as he ran away.

Iroh turned and followed him, shouting after his nephew to stop and to come back. But it was to no avail. The young prince was rounding the corner that led to his room and had quickly gotten out of sight. Once Iroh had reached the room and shut the door behind him, the shouts of approaching men could be heard over the sounds of shooting fire and heavy footsteps.

"Zuko! We must get out now!"

He turned just as Iroh had spoke and pushed his dagger into his pocket, and put on his Pai Sho tile, which was now attached to a long golden chain. His golden eyes were large with surprise as he finally heard the sounds of the rebels, now banging on nearby doors and lighting the tapestries outside on fire. Iroh ran to him and grabbed his arm, seeing he had been practically frozen in his spot. Just as they turned to get towards the door, a painting on the wall moved to the side and a young girl, not a day over 8, hopped out.

"Here! Use the servant's tunnels!" she shouted to them, her blue eyes wide with fear but her voice firm with resolve to help them. She pushed her braid over her shoulder and strode over to them, helping Iroh bring Zuko to the exit. Her tanner face was smudged with soot and some shorter curls were falling out of her braid and into her eyes. Iroh thanked her quickly and she just shook her head and pushed them inside the hidden tunnel. "Just go!"

There were rebels nearby now, slamming against the locked door. Iroh pushed Zuko deeper inside the hidden passage in the wall, and slid in behind him. Zuko turned and shouted something about his dagger again, but the servant girl yelled at him to run as she shoved him inside and pulled the painting back over the entrance.

 _Zuko and I ran through the servant's tunnels, our way illuminated with a fire in my palm and the only sounds between us were the ones of our slippered feet slapping against damp earth floors. Every once in a while, I heard Zuko sniffle behind me. But he kept quiet._

The fires spreading through the palace were now starting to heat up the secret tunnels, causing Zuko and Iroh to sweat and stumble their way towards the exit. Iroh was praying to Agni for guidance to get them to the eastern side of the palace, where they could escape and head towards the docks that would bring them to the Earth Kingdom.

But his hope was shattered when the fires finally reached them.

The tunnel in front of them was engulfed in flames, blocking their exit and quickly crawling towards them. Iroh stumbled back, his arm pulling Zuko against him, and he took a deep breath as he steeled himself for what needed to be done.

"Alright, Zuko," he coaxed to his nephew. "We need to use our bending to prevent the fires from touching us. Do you remember what I taught you about your breathing?"

He felt Zuko nod against his shoulder blade. "Deep and steady."

"Good. When I get to three, I am going to let you go and we are going to run through the flames. You will need to focus on keeping the fires off of your body until we reach the exit. Can you do that?"

When he glanced back at Zuko, he saw the hard determination in his eyes as he nodded again and let go of Iroh's hand. Iroh did his best to give Zuko a reassuring smile, but even he could tell it was all for naught. After all, their world was literally burning down in flames. There wasn't much a man could do with a smile except hope.

"One."

Zuko nodded and took a deep breath. Iroh turned back towards the approaching fire and breathed himself.

"Two."

Iroh sank into his knees and took another deep breath, ready to run. Zuko did the same.

"Three!"

With a sharp exhale, Iroh ran towards the fire, using his bending to push it away. He felt Zuko follow his lead, his bending not as strong but still vibrant enough to curve the flames away from his body and out of their way. The entire tunnel was engulfed, the wooden beams creaking under the destruction and starting to break and fall.

There was a shout behind him and he turned to see Zuko had collapsed under a fallen rafter, one that was on fire and burning the young prince. Iroh sprinted back and saw it had fallen over the left side of Zuko's body, the flames burning his face and part of his shoulder and chest. He was screaming, trying to shove the log off and bend the fire away as much as he could. But the flames could not be so easily tamed.

Iroh grabbed it and hefted it away, burning his hands in the process, then pulled Zuko up by his right arm and led him to the exit as fast as he could.

Zuko's whimpers were as hushed as he could be, but Iroh could tell he was in immense pain. From what the seasoned General had seen in the flickering firelight, Zuko was dripping blood from his face and arm, all from burns that had scalded his skin. Together they ran towards the exit, which was now in their sights.

"Uncle," Zuko rasped out, so pained and softly it was barely heard. "It hurts…"

Iroh huffed with the strain of running and replied in a breath, "I know, Zuko. We will get it fixed as soon as we're safe. We need you to be safe, nephew."

Zuko's reply was another sniffle and hiccup, but he remained vigilant on following Iroh out of the tunnels and to sanctuary.

Once they reached the exit, the smell of burning brimstone and wood filled their nostrils, as did the sight of ashes and flames reaching high into the night sky. Iroh took Zuko's hand, ignoring the shooting pain that he felt from his own burns, and guided him to the hidden exit in the burning garden, where they ran together towards the docks. They slipped through the city unnoticed, everyone's attention was on the burning palace and the screams coming from inside.

Iroh could see Zuko look back every once in a while, agony evident on his brave face. Not just from the new and festering burns that covered his left eye and cheek, but from the sounds he heard. It was no doubt that those screams belonged to his family and the friends he made within the palace. And he was running to safety while they burned. His anger was clear as his pain.

They reached the docks pretty quickly, and saw other citizens trying to flee the city on the boats. Chaos was reigning everywhere, and the two royals were starting to have a hard time navigating through the crowds of people. Just as Iroh tugged Zuko to a boat, it began to push away from the dock. The General was hefted up by some of the passengers, while Zuko reached up and tried to leap up to join his uncle.

His fingers grasped Iroh's, but as he kept running along the dock, losing space to run, he began to slip out of Iroh's grip.

"Uncle!"

Iroh's heart stopped and his eyes were wide as he shouted, "Hold my hand, Zuko!"

The prince's fear was now evident in his good eye, the other swollen shut and still bleeding and blistering, as he cried, "Don't let go!"

But just as Zuko had said those words, his fingers completely slipped away and he stumbled and fell onto the dock, hitting his head hard on the wood.

 _I shouted for him, but he did not respond. My young nephew had been knocked unconscious by the fall. No one would stop the boat for me, no one would let me go back._

 _That was the last time I ever saw my Zuko again…_

"Zuko!"

* * *

 _ **10 years later**_

The building he was exiting looked so much smaller, now that he knew he would never come back. The children in the windows bid him farewell, calling out to him and wishing him good fortune in his life. He returned their farewells, waving and grinning at them, instead of listening to the warden and his instructions.

"Are you even listening to me boy?!"

Lee looked down from the windows and to the man in front of him. With a roll of his eyes and a gritting of his teeth, he replied, "Yes, Jee."

The older man scowled and walked past Lee, towards the front gate of the orphanage. "For the past ten years, I've fed you-"

As Jee spoke, Lee mouthed his words along with him and rolled his eyes as he did.

"-I've clothed you. I've-"

"Put a roof over my head…"

Jee rounded on his heels, much like the the retired Lieutenant he was, and glared at the orphan in front of him. "How is it you can't remember where you came from, but you can remember that? You were brought to me ten years ago with not a single clue about yourself. Nothing but the clothes on your back and the burns on your skin. Maybe if you had put as much effort into figuring out about yourself as you did in mocking me, I wouldn't have been stuck with you. Even after all this time, you still have no clue about anything..."

Lee scowled as he reached under his shirt and pulled out the pendant that had been resting against his chest. "Well, I do have a clue! I-"

"Oh yes," Jee mocked, his brown eyes rolling as he taunted, "' _A long, long way to Ba Sing Se.'_ Do you really think you will be able to find what you're looking for there? You better just be smart and take the job I got for you. There will be a man at the docks waiting for you, so don't mess this up. You might as well just realize that this is the best thing for you."

Lee just huffed and nodded as he readjusted the sparse bag on his back. After he bid Jee one last farewell and waved to the younger children hanging out of the windows, Lee strode down the path and headed east to the docks. A scowl made its way onto his face when he remembered the damned place. It was where he had been found a decade ago, bleeding and burned and delirious from shock, his memory of how and why he was so burned completely gone. He was taken to the closest hospital near the red light district and had been treated there, but the burns had settled in too much and he was permanently scarred. Not even the waterbenders employed in the hospital could fix him. Now an angry scar mottled the left side of his face, reminiscent of a comet, and his shoulder bore a similar superficial disfiguring.

According to Jee, not many would find his scar pleasing to the eyes, so selling him to the red lights would be out of the question. At his young age, he was strong and healthy enough to take care of shipments and hauling loads at the docks. Jee knew a guy who knew a guy and was able to secure Lee a job with the harbormaster. And he'd have to be on a train down to docks by sundown in order to ensure he would get the job.

Lee stuffed his hands in his pockets as he walked as leisurely as he could towards the east. The orphanage was on the northwestern outskirts of the Caldera, so he'd have to hoof it to get to the trains in time.

Or he could just take his time and mistakenly not arrive before the train left at sundown. No skin off his back. After all, he didn't want that for himself, a life stuck at the shore with no way of leaving it. He wanted more. With a grin, Lee looked over his shoulder to make sure the orphanage was out of sight before he turned on his heel and headed south towards the shopping district.

* * *

"Are you sure this is going to work?"

Blue eyes glared at her from over a broad shoulder, and her brother huffed with annoyance. "Katara, how else do you think we're going to get the money to pay for Gran Gran's treatment? With mom gone and dad serving under the Northern Tribe, we can't get the money without some extreme means. This might be the only thing that will work."

Katara scowled and huffed, "Yeah, but tricking an old man into thinking we found his long-lost nephew and taking his money to pay for it? I think that will bite us in the asses before we can even reach the South Pole. Sokka, are you sure we should do this?"

Sokka spun on his heels and stared his sister down with a frown that matched hers. "You told me from your time working in the palace with mom that General Iroh was a kind and generous man. And you met Prince Zuko, so you'd be able to pluck out any fakes from the potentials and we could easily get him to Ba Sing Se and reunited with Iroh."

"It's not a reunion if it's not really Zuko."

Sokka groaned and scrubbed his face with his hands. "What else can we do? We don't have the money nor the means to get more money. Right now, we're desperate and this is a desperate ploy to get money."

Katara frowned even more as she replied, "But tricking an old man? It'll be harder than you think. Iroh was sharp a decade ago, and will still be even now. I doubt we can pull a fast one on him with a fake."

Sokka blinked hard, unenthused by her negativity, and he rolled his eyes as he turned back around and headed towards the door. "Look, we can talk about this later. For right now, we're holding the auditions and are going through with it. Haru secured tickets for a boat ride to Yu Dao that leaves tomorrow morning. We either need to find someone who looks like Prince Zuko or I'll bleach your skin and cut your hair to make you look like a boy."

Katara flushed and shoved Sokka's shoulder. "Absolutely not!"

Sokka chuckled and led her towards a table that overlooked a makeshift stage. "Yeah, that won't work. You're definitely a girl, even under all of those clothes. We wouldn't be able to fool even the blind homeless lady who lives outside of the palace."

Katara scoffed again, but did not retort his claim. After all, being eighteen was hard to hide, even in loose clothes and tight wraps underneath. Her big and bright blue eyes would be a giveaway that she wasn't the lost prince, regardless, so she knew Sokka had just tried to ease her worry with one of his flat jokes. Again.

As the siblings settled into their chairs, Sokka put some glasses on and squinted at the papers in front of him. "Alright, first up please."

And as a heavy-set man with overgrown sideburns and tobacco-stained teeth waddled onto stage, Katara repressed a groan and silently prayed to Tui and La that some sort of miracle would find its way in front of them.

* * *

After leisurely walking for a few hours, Lee managed to migrate more south towards the ruins of the old nobility district. There were empty homes lining the streets, vacant for a decade, and the roads were cracked and weed-ridden. Places that may have once stood tall were now crumbling, left to rot by people who didn't care, and they all led to one place in the center square: the Fire Palace.

Curiosity got the best of him and Lee made his way towards the towering ruin. Something tugged him forward, some unseen force that led him down the broken streets as if he knew the way already. An ache settled in his stomach, filled with the knowledge of the death that lined these streets, and he swallowed it away as best as he could.

When Lee reached the tall fences that once separated the grand Fire Palace from the rest of the squalor of Caldera, he looked in to see the charred shell that had been the home of the Royal Family. He didn't know much about what happened here, just that the Fire Nation used to be ruled by the Fire Lord and his family. Then there was an accident that killed all eligible heirs and now the Fire Nation was ruled by oligarchs and drunks from one of the islands in the archipelago, leaving this building as a stark reminder of what used to be.

"There was a fire."

He turned around, spotting a decrepit old woman who had spoken from behind him, appearing out of thin air. She was shrouded in a dirty old red cloak, torn and wearing down at the hems. Her brown eyes were clouded with age, yet she stared at him with such intensity it almost made Lee's skin crawl.

"A fire?"

She nodded and hobbled one step closer, her fragile and wrinkled hands reaching to grasp the fencing that Lee had peered through. "Years ago. The royal family was trapped inside, along with many of the servants and staff. Some say it was an accident. But others say it was started by the rebels that now rule the nation. General Iroh was one of the only ones to get out, and he claims it was no accident. He even claims that he believes his nephew, the prince, to be alive. But not many listened to the old man, not even back then. He's now in Ba Sing Se, aging like an overripe tomato and blathering on about his missing nephew..."

Lee fought the urge to run his fingers over the tile around his neck. Instead, he looked down to the woman and frowned as he inquired, "The prince? Why would he believe the prince is still alive if everyone died in the fire?"

The old woman frowned and patted Lee on his shoulder. "Because Iroh said he and the prince escaped the palace together. But got separated on the way out of the city. Here, there's always hope that he will return. But it's dwindling as time passes."

Lee furrowed his brow and looked back to the palace. "He's probably dead, like the rest of them."

The woman clicked her tongue and shook her head before turned away from him as she murmured, "There is always hope, young one. He could be hiding in the midst of us all, waiting for the right time to rise up and take back this country."

As she walked away, Lee kept his eyes on the old building beyond the fence. The ancient stone walls still stood, but were blackened with soot and crumbling with damage from the fire. The front doors were boarded up with wooden planks, blocking entry to any intruder. A dark thought crossed his mind, curiosity taking the reins again as his eyes scanned the building. He peaked over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't being watched, saw he was alone, and slid through a hole in the fence.

Lee slunk towards the palace, eyes watching for onlookers. He couldn't afford being caught, not in a forbidden area. Not as a poor orphan from the outer part of the city. The lights from the city were beginning to overpower the setting sun, casting an eerie glow on the destroyed towers that loomed above him.

Even before he left the orphanage, Lee had the insatiable need to explore. He couldn't explain it, nor could he quench it. The itch in his palm and the curiosity in his chest caused him to run, climb, and squeeze into the most unlikely of places, read the most obscure books in the run-down library across the street, and find himself in the most skewed of fights. He was fearless, at least he proclaimed himself to be. Even now as he reached the front doors of the palace and used his knife to loosen some nails of the boards did he consider himself to be reckless and audacious.

The wood groaned as he pulled it away from the doors and tossed it away, giving himself an acceptable amount of space to squeeze through. He couldn't explain why, but he just had to get inside. He had to know what drew him to this place.

Dust lingered in the air, catching the last streams of sunlight as they shone through the stained glass above the doorway. Lee looked around, taking in the interior of the once-splendor that the Royal Family lived in. The stairs that led up to the second floor were broken, caved in at multiple places and rotting everywhere else. The hall straight in front of him was dark, and it looked like at least half of the ceiling had fallen and blocked any passage. He huffed and opened a flame in his palm - a trick one of the older orphans taught him before she was sent to the red lights - and he made his way to the stairs.

He chose the one on his left because it looked stable enough to climb right along the railing. But after three steps up, he realized it was a mistake. His foot fell through the flooring and he yelped as he scrambled to grab the railing before he fell all the way through. The crashing sound echoed up the stairs and down the halls, and Lee cursed his luck once more.

He maneuvered his leg out the best he could, avoiding further injuring himself or the stairs, and he managed to scramble up the rest of the stairs before collapsing at the top. The skin on his calf stung - likely from a gash- and his ankle felt like it rolled in the fall, and Lee once again cursed himself.

Maybe exploring this place wasn't such a good idea, after all.

Once he caught his breath, Lee pulled himself up and glanced down at his calf, and sure enough it was bleeding heavily through the rip of his pants and onto the tops of his short and raggedy boots. He blew his bangs out of his face and quickly ripped the remaining fabric up to his knee and quickly set about wrapping the wound as best as he could.

He'll clean it up eventually.

The makeshift bandage was fastened with a lopsided knot and Lee turned his attention back to the halls. There were dozens of large paintings lining the walls near the rafters, each of an individual man with stylized elements painted next to him. After years of neglect, dust coated each and every one of them, hindering Lee from truly getting a good look at them. He sighed and turned his attention to the curtained door that led to what he assumed was the throne room. After all, the burned tapestries and emptied suits of armor told him he was in the right place.

Lee relit the flame in his palm and padded over to the doorway. He pushed the curtain to the side, unsurprised when pieces fluttered off and onto the floor. Such was the nature of fire; it destroyed. Lee fought the urge to rub his left cheekbone at the thought.

When he fully entered the dark room, he brightened his fire and looked around. Multiple columns led to the ceiling, most likely for decoration and not function, and they all led towards a raised dais that Lee figured had been the throne. He walked forward, his footsteps echoing against the surprisingly dust-free wood floors. When he reached the dais, the faint smell of gasoline hit him and he immediately dimmed his fire. He trailed his fingers along the raised floor and found it dry, so he lowered his hand just a little to get a better look. There was a thin strip of stone that separated the dais from the floor and Lee dipped his finger between the grooves. He felt some moisture and brought it back up to his nose, finding the source of the gasoline.

"Interesting," he hummed to himself. He took a step back and sent a small flame to the stone, which caught and trailed completely down the dais until it reached the walls. The entire room was illuminated with the firelight and it took Lee's breath away. The room was much larger than he anticipated, stretching much farther than he thought practical. Though what really caught his eye was the cushion on top of the dais and the small table next to it. Lee parted the flames and climbed up onto the dais, then strode over towards what he could only describe as a miniature gazebo.

This was the Fire Lord's throne, where he sat and led and ultimately perished. The cushion was ripped and tossed to the side, likely the work of thieves, and the table had been knocked over, the contents coated with dust.

Behind the throne was something that really took Lee's attention and his breath: a giant dragon carved into the wall and painting propped up against it. Faded with time and dust was what appeared to be a picture of the last Royal Family, the parents and their children. The man was broad-shouldered and stern, with vacant eyes and high cheekbones. The woman was softer, younger, and her eyes held a haunted sadness that made Lee's chest ache with familiarity. There was a little girl, a spitting image of the woman, and an older boy, a copy of the man. Lee narrowed his eyes when he looked at the boy, taking in his features on the roughened canvas. Black hair pulled into a top knot, adorned with a small flame, and bright eyes that seemed to glow even after time had taken the painting.

 _"Hey!"_

Lee whirled around and froze. Two figures lingered in the doorway, silhouetted by the incoming light. He belatedly realized the fire that had lined the dais was now twice in size, obscuring them even further.

"How did you get in here?!"

* * *

Katara grumbled in frustration as the last of the "hopefuls" walked off the stage. After hours of "auditioning", they had gotten nowhere with their Prince Zuko look-alike quest. Sokka had claimed one looked _sort_ of like the Prince, but Katara denied him by saying he looked more like the late Prince Lu Ten and bringing _him_ to General Iroh would be an even bigger mistake than bringing a fake Zuko.

Sokka sighed from next to her and started gathering his papers. "I guess this means Plan B: Go to Yu Dao by ourselves and meet up with Aang. He can help us figure something out."

Katara scowled at her brother and replied, "Absolutely not. I'm not going to my ex-boyfriend because we need money. Besides, the Nomads don't have money."

Sokka looked at her like she had said the stupidest thing in the entire world. "I meant for a way to find a fake Zuko. He's traveled all over the world. He's bound to know someone who looks like the Prince. And-"

Suddenly, there was a crashing noise coming from the other side of the building, where the throne room was, and Katara and Sokka met each other's eyes with anger.

"Great!" Sokka groaned as he stood and grabbed his sword from the edge of the table. "First we can't find a Zuko, now we have someone breaking in?! How worse can this day get?!"

Katara followed him through the winding halls, sidestepping crumbled walls and fallen doorways, and they reached the throne room foyer with huffs of frustration and irritation. Honestly, who would break in? There was nothing left of value in the palace, and everyone who lingered in the halls would leave after a week or two once they realized that there was nothing worth staying for. At least, everyone but Sokka and Katara. She had once been working in the palace with her mother, apprenticing under the tutelage of the palace healer, when the rebels attacked and left almost everyone for dead. She and her mother escaped, but not after Katara aided General Iroh and Prince Zuko in fleeing. Not a day had passed that she didn't think of the boy with the bright golden eyes and the courage of a polar bear dog. It was his bravery that inspired her to help him escape, and for her to go back and grab the dagger he had dropped before someone else could figure out where he had gone.

The dagger that now rested on the small of her back next to her water pouch.

Ten long years had passed, three of which she had lived in Caldera with her brother. Ever since the new government took over the Fire Nation, tensions had been high with the other nations. Their mother died from a bleeding cough four years after the fire and in his grief, their father had gone to serve under the Northern Water Tribe and patrol the waters between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom to deter any sort of conflict. When their Gran Gran got sick with the same cough, Sokka vowed to do what it took to help her get better, which included taking Katara north with her then-"boyfriend" Aang and go to the Fire Nation to find someone who could help since the Northern Tribe had refused to send anyone down.

After they arrived in Caldera, they realized how hopeless their situation had become. Aang had left them - more specifically, her - and said he would send word if he found a way to help, and Sokka and Katara remained in the Fire Nation in order to find someone that could help their Gran Gran.

Katara sighed and shook herself back to the present as they reached the door that led to the throne room. After all, no point in lingering on the past when there was nothing she could do to fix it. The odd jobs and cons Sokka would pull helped them with getting food and minimal fabric for clothing, but it wasn't enough to get help to their Gran Gran.

There was murmuring on the other side of the curtain door, which had disintegrated at the edges even more than it had before. The perpetrator had heavy hands, apparently. Sokka turned to her and put a finger over his lips, telling her to stay quiet, and he leaned his ear towards the opening.

From the darkness, a light came out. Katara could tell that the dais had been lit for the first time in a decade. The perpetrator was also a firebender. That was rare.

Even over the sounds of the fire in the dais, she could hear a soft gasp coming from the room. She met Sokka's eyes, similar confusion in his gaze, and they both made their way to the door. Sokka strode in first, Katara right behind him, and they squared up towards the person standing on the dais.

"Hey!" Sokka shouted out, his voice echoing throughout the chamber. The person spun on his heels, face shadowed by the suddenly larger flames, and he remained frozen at being caught. Sokka took another step forward and shouted again, "How did you get in here?!"

Katara waited with baited breath for the intruder's reaction, hands lingering over the water pouch on her hip. Through the flames, she could barely make out his body, but she knew he was there. After all, when she worked in the palace she could always tell when Ozai was on his throne.

Sokka started stomping towards the dais, drawing his sword, and he barked again, "Who are you?!"

The stranger took a staggered step towards the side and then darted off. Sokka let out a yelp of surprise and followed him, Katara tailing after them both. The stranger sped through a hidden door, one that led towards the residential wings of the palace, and almost vanished entirely. Sokka shouted after him while stumbling over the debris in the hall and Katara watched as the stranger - now someone she saw that had the black hair and fair skin of the Fire Nation - leapt up another flight of stairs and bounded over the holes in the floor.

"Wait! We just want to talk to you!" Katara called to him, but to no avail. He kept running away, and Katara quickly darted up after him. Sokka had shouted something about taking the other route, but Katara blocked him out as she kept up her pursuit of the intruder.

At the top of the stairs, her foot slipped on something and she glanced down to see fresh blood of all things on the floor. Her throat tightened and she looked up to see the stranger had slowed down a bit, a limp now evident in his stride as he turned the corner and went out of her sight.

Katara slowed down and followed the path of blood on the floor, the drips growing bigger as the stranger had slowed his pace, as well. When she turned the same corner he had, she was met with him slumped against the wall of the dead end hallway where the painting of the men of the Royal Family had hung crookedly, black hair hanging down and obscuring his face.

"Hey, we just want to talk."

His head snapped up and he quickly pushed himself off the wall with arms raised for a fight, and the first thing Katara noticed about him was the burn scar mottling the entire left side of his face. Her heart sank with pity and the healer in her ached to help him, but that thought was stopped short when she met his eyes.

Golden eyes. Bright golden eyes, like those of the line of Agni.

"Katara!" Her brother's footsteps came rushing towards her and stopped right behind her. "Hey! Why did you run?"

The stranger's eyes darted to Sokka and the defensive look there did not leave. Flames sparked out of his fists into small dagger-like jets.

Katara couldn't take her eyes off of him, stunned to say the least. This stranger was a spitting image of Prince Zuko, other than the huge scar on his face and his shaggy hairstyle. If she guessed right, he would be the right age, too.

This was their ticket, the thing that would save them and their Gran Gran.

"Sokka, lower your sword," she murmured without looking away from the stranger.

"What? Katara-"

"Just do it," she hissed. The stranger's eyes darted to her and she was once again struck by his similarity to Prince Zuko. It actually pained her to think about using him for their own gain. She opened her water pouch and coated her hands with the water inside. The stranger's eyes widened and he took a staggered step back, wincing ever-so slightly when he put weight on his left leg. Katara took a step towards him and raised her hands to show her friendly intent. "It looks like you're injured. I can heal you."

The golden eyes remained skeptical and darted back to Sokka before returning to her. They were wide, but something in them told her she could take another step forward.

"I'll need you to sit so I can get a good look at it, okay?"

He nodded, surprisingly trusting of a woman he quite literally just met, then lowered his fists and put out his fire. He removed his bag from his shoulder as he pressed his back against the wall and sank to the floor. Katara walked towards him and lowered herself to her knees, then reached for his injured leg. The moment her fingers touched the bare skin above his makeshift bandage, she felt sparks dance under her skin.

Strange.

He hissed and Katara glanced up at him to make sure she hadn't hurt him, and he replied in a low and ragged voice, worn beyond his years, "Sorry. It's cold."

Katara gave him a reassuring smile as she cupped the back of his calf and removed the fabric that covered his wound. "It's alright. There's not much I can do to warm it up. Healing water is cold no matter what."

He seemed to understand her enough and nodded, his eyes glued to her now-glowing hands. The golden color was heightened by it, enhanced by his transfixed stare. She couldn't take her eyes off of him.

"What's your name?"

He tore his eyes away from her hands and met her gaze, then visibly swallowed before stating, "Lee. My name is Lee."

"I'm Katara," she replied, her smile easy. "And that's my brother Sokka."

She assumed Sokka waved by the way Lee meekly waved back to him.

Katara removed her hand from his calf and inspected the skin, pleased to see it was entirely smooth. Lee's eyes widened and he did that swallowing thing again as she moved her hand to his ankle and lifted it into her hands. Lee winced and she figured he had rolled it in the same incident as the cut, so she focused the water on the ligaments and bones that had been injured.

"What are you doing here in the palace?"

Lee was silent for a moment, then she heard him sigh quietly before he answered in his rough voice, "Got curious."

"About?"

"Not entirely sure."

She lifted her chin to meet his eyes and saw him looking out the broken window. All she could see was his scar and her heart did that churning thing whenever she saw a starving puppy or wounded cat on the street.

Though his golden eyes were clear as day.

There's no way…

"You got family, kid?"

Katara mentally groaned and rolled her eyes at her brother's brusqueness, but watched Lee and waited for his reply.

The firebender ground his teeth together, rolling his jaw in the process and he dropped his chin to his chest as he said in a mutter, "No. I don't. I just was allowed to leave the orphanage permanently. I've been there for as long as I can remember."

Katara glared at Sokka over her shoulder as she finished up healing Lee's ankle. She stood, then gave Lee a hesitant smile before turning on her heel to march to Sokka. She noticed Lee and stood as well, experimenting with putting weight on his leg and inspecting her work. As he lingered in the corner that she had trapped him in, and Katara motioned for Sokka to lean closer so they could speak privately.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Sokka frowned. "No."

She huffed with exasperation and jerked her chin towards Lee, who was still waiting silently by the windowsill.

"What about him? He broke in, so what? He won't bother us."

Katara sighed and shook her head. "Does he look familiar at all?"

Sokka looked over her shoulder towards Lee and shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe if he parted his hair to the side and didn't have the scar, he'd look a little like Ruon-Jian?"

Katara groaned again and resisted the urge to smack herself in the forehead. "No, look a little harder."

Sokka glanced at Lee again and Katara followed his gaze. Lee was now staring up at the painting that was on the wall, the one of Fire Lord Ozai, General Iroh and the Princes Lu Ten and Zuko, and Sokka squinted. At this angle, the scar was not visible. Just the unblemished side of his face. After a long moment, Sokka's eyes widened and he let in a sharp gasp of breath.

When he met Katara's gaze again, she nodded and whispered, "The boat leaves in the morning."

Sokka grinned and patted her on the shoulder before stepping around her and striding towards Lee. The man in question turned back to them and his good eye widened as he shuffled back towards the wall, startled like a deer-cat.

"Were you planning on going anywhere, Lee?"

Lee shook his head and his hand drifted up to his chest, clutching the fabric slightly under his long fingers. "Not entirely… Though I think I need to go to Ba Sing Se…"

Sokka looked over his shoulders and met Katara's eyes, his gaze gleaming with triumph. "Well, Lee, it just so happens we're leaving on a boat for Ba Sing Se in the morning. And we have some tickets."

Katara stepped to her brother's side and pulled the aforementioned tickets out of her pocket and dangled them in front of her face, ready to play the part. "It just so happens we have a spare ticket, but that's for _him_."

Lee's single eyebrow cocked up. "Who?"

Sokka pointed up to the painting towards the youngest man depicted there. "Him: Prince Zuko."

Lee's eyes dropped and his shoulders sagged. "Oh."

Sokka took a few steps forward, Katara right behind him, and he stated, "We are going to reunite the Prince with his Uncle."

Katara walked beside Lee and looked him straight in the eyes. "You do kind of resemble him."

Sokka nodded and added, "The same eyes."

"The eyes of Agni."

"Ozai's smile," Sokka commented.

"Ursa's chin," Katara stated. Lee frowned and stepped away from the siblings. Katara followed him and circled him like a buzzard wasp. "He's the same age, same physical type."

Lee shook his head and gave Katara the most incredulous look she had ever seen. "Are you trying to tell me that you think that _I'm_ Prince Zuko?"

Katara shrugged and strode around so she was in front of the painting. "All I'm trying to tell you is that I've seen thousands of boys all over the country and not one of them looks as much like the Prince as you do. I mean look at the portrait."

Lee followed her gaze and looked up to the painting. His eyes were focused on the depiction of Zuko, all young and bright-eyed, even in the aged picture. "You're crazy. That can't possibly be me."

"Why?" Katara asked as Lee lifted his hand to his left cheek and pressed against the ruined skin. His scowl grew and he removed his hand from his face as looked away from the painting and she murmured, "You said you've been at that orphanage as long as you can remember."

"No one knows what happened to him ten years ago," Sokka added, which caused Lee's good eye to widen slightly.

"You're wanting to go to Ba Sing Se," Katara remarked, taking Lee's attention again. "His only family is in Ba Sing Se. Have you ever even considered it?"

Lee's eyes drifted to the painting again. "That I could be royalty?"

Both Sokka and Katara nodded and hummed in affirmation.

Lee shrugged with his right shoulder and murmured softly, lost in the painting, "Well I don't know... It's kind of hard to think of yourself as a Prince when you're sleeping on a damp floor. But sure, yeah, I guess every lonely boy would hope he's a prince, or whatever."

Sokka and Katara met each other's eyes and the siblings both turned to walk away. Sokka called out over his shoulder, "We'd like to help, really, but the third ticket is for Prince Zuko. You can stay here as long as you'd like, but there's not much here."

Lee sighed, but didn't seem to notice them leaving. Katara glanced back at him, curious about the orphan with the scar, and then turned back to Sokka. "Should we just invite him to come with us?"

Sokka shook his head and kept on walking towards the stairs. "If he doesn't believe he's Zuko, then he won't help us sell it and win us that reward money. He has to believe that he is the lost prince, not just act like it."

Katara looked back to Lee and saw he had dropped his gaze to his feet and was frowning deeply. She wanted to stop and wait for him, but Sokka was insisting they take it slow and he would come to them.

By the time they reached the stairs, Lee was running towards them with his bag slung on his back and a determined look in his eye. She had seen that same look of determination in Prince Zuko when he was escaping the palace.

"Katara, wait!"

An involuntary shiver ran down her spine.

Sokka gave her that triumphant smile and they both turned towards the approaching man.

"If I don't remember who I am, then who's to say I'm not a prince or whatever he is... Right?"

Both Katara and Sokka nodded.

"And if I'm not Zuko, the General will certainly know right away and it's all just an honest mistake," Lee remarked, meeting their eyes and nodded along with them.

Sokka flashed him one of those winning smiles and replied, "But if you are the prince, then you'll finally know who you are and have your family back."

The hopeful look in Lee's eyes almost made Katara feel bad for having to use him. Almost. She started chuckling lightly and added, "You know, he's right! Either way, it gets you to Ba Sing Se."

That determination was back and Katara knew then and there they had their Zuko.

* * *

 _tbc._


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA**_

 _ **A/N** Hey looks like you guys like this so far! Here's more!_

 _Also just letting you know there are times that I will be taking minor amounts of dialogue straight out of the movie. It helps with the story and I personally really enjoy the lines, so I will be using them._

* * *

 _ **Chapter Two**_

* * *

As the sun rose at the edge of the sea, Katara followed behind her brother and their new charge onto the deck of the boat. Not many civilian transportation vessels came to and from the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom anymore, so they were boarding on an old, rickety merchant cruiser that would take them straight to the harbor of Yu Dao, as did anyone else who needed to pass between the nations these days outside of cruise ships heading towards Ember Island or the random pilgrimage to the Crescent Moon Island.

Unfortunately, in order for them to get to the Earth Kingdom, they would have to pass through the barricade made by the Earth Kingdom's navy and the Water Tribes. But with the tickets and forged travel papers given to them by their friend Haru, who had come to Caldera a few months beforehand with a delivery, they would be able to cross the hostile waters without issue.

That is, unless Lee did something stupid and got them into trouble.

Katara scowled at their new companion as he bit into his apple and leaned over the railing of the boat. His casual attitude despite the risky situation was starting to rub her the wrong way. Plus his general cloud of surliness affected her more than she cared to admit, leeching onto her normally cheerful disposition and causing her to scowl and mumble like the orphan often did.

Like the night before. Once they got some food in their stomachs and finished up their packing, Lee had spent most of the evening sitting against the wall, arms crossed and a frown plastered on his face, and didn't lift a finger to help them.

"It's not my stuff, why do I need to help you?" he had said, causing Katara to completely drop her pity for him and replace it with the undying need to punch him in the gut.

As the boat left the dock and Sokka went to the cabins below deck with their belongings, Katara approached Lee with her arms folded behind her back. Her fingers grazed the hilt of the dagger on her belt out of nervousness and she joined him at the railing.

"So, have you ever been to the Earth Kingdom?"

A dry look crossed his face as Lee's good eyebrow arched and he replied, "Can't say that I have."

She mentally slapped herself on the forehead at her stupid attempt towards conversation, then she cleared her throat and tried again, "Well, then what do you think it's like?"

Lee shrugged with his right shoulder and murmured, "Green, I suppose."

Katara glanced towards him and watched him toss his apple core into the water and pull a Pai Sho tile that was attached to a golden chain out from under his shirt and start twirling it between his fingers. Strange. She would need to get to the bottom of that.

"You should probably stop fiddling with that thing. It's unbecoming of a Prince to fiddle."

He scowled and grasped it tightly in his palm. His voice was sharp when he asked, "How is that you know what Princes do or don't do?"

"I make it my business to know," she replied curtly and sniffed. He met her gaze briefly, annoyance clear in those golden depths, before looking back to the tile. Katara glanced down and saw it was the White Lotus, a favored piece for those who preferred a defensive strategy. She sighed, figuring she was going about this the wrong way. Riling him up wasn't going to do anyone any favors, and he tended to clam up and get angry or defensive any time she pushed him too hard.

Movement from behind Lee caught her attention and she saw Sokka had emerged from below deck, questions on his face - likely at Lee's stiff and closed-off posture - and she shook her head before bringing her attention back to their pseudo-Prince. "Look Lee, I'm just trying to help. Alright?"

"I'm sure."

"But you're going to have to cooperate if we want this to work, okay?"

Lee snorted and flipped the tile over. Katara glanced down to see some words painted on the back of the tile, but at the distance she was standing from him and the general wear of the paint over time, she couldn't distinguish the phrase or why Lee was staring so intently at it.

"Katara?"

She leaned towards him, curious as to why his tone had suddenly changed from the typical short and snappy to a shy, uncertain one. With a smile, she lifted her eyebrows and replied, "Yes?"

He fiddled with his tile again, looking down at it with something akin to quiet contemplation and frustration when he asked, "Do you really think I'm royalty?"

Her smile grew and she nodded once, now feeling as if they were getting somewhere with this orphan. It was pleasing to even fathom, and it was even more satisfying to see it actually happen. "You know I do."

Then, her happiness was practically squashed when he turned to her, the petulant expression back on his face as he shoved his tile back under his oversized shirt and he snapped, "Then stop bossing me around!"

Sokka snickered from his spot next to them and she shot him a warning glance. Lee took the momentary discord between siblings to turn on his heel and stomp towards the main hatch to most likely hide in their cabin.

"That's ten for him, one for you," Sokka commented while Lee was still within earshot. "He certainly has a mind of his own."

"I hate that in people," Katara muttered, causing Lee to look over his shoulder and stick out his tongue at her. She was so stunned at his childish antic that she couldn't even come up with a response. Before she could try, however, the boat hit a high wave and jostled the siblings enough to make them temporarily forget their peevish traveling companion. One last glance at where Lee retreated caused Katara to sigh, but she didn't dwell on it much longer. Sokka was too keen to discuss what they were going to do when they arrived in the Earth Kingdom.

Around lunch time, Lee still hadn't come out of the lower decks, so Katara put it upon herself to find him in their cabin. Like she thought, it was there, laying on his side in his bunk with a book in his hands, and obviously trying to ignore her.

She sighed and closed the door behind her, then walked over to the cot opposite of him. His eyes rose from the pages of the book and his eyebrow arched in a silent question.

Guess she had to be the bigger person.

"Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot," she started, causing Lee's good eye to widen slightly in surprise. "We need to work together, and all we've been doing is antagonizing each other. Normally the only person I'm around for long periods of time is my brother so I'm not used to being cordial and completely polite."

Lee sniffed and looked back to his book. "I accept your apology."

"I-" she paused, then frowned. Wait, what? "I didn't apologize."

He shrugged with his right shoulder again - she needed to figure out why he did that - and he replied, "You didn't, but I knew that's where this conversation was going."

When he lifted his eyes from the book again and met her unimpressed glare, he smirked.

"Well, we certainly won't need to work on haughtiness when it comes to your Royal Training," she huffed, causing him to drop his book to the cot and give her a deadpan look of disbelief. At his silence, she added, "In order for you to be presentable to General Iroh, you will need to be properly education on royal protocol. Luckily for you, I already know all of it. And what I don't know, Sokka knows."

Lee's gaze turned skeptical and he sat up straight. "Is that really necessary?"

"General Iroh has been looking for Prince Zuko for a whole decade," Katara murmured, her mood suddenly somber at the thought of the General and his face the night the palace was ransacked. "Many people have come forward, claiming to be the Prince, but after a few questions asked by Iroh's attendants and looking at the claimer, it was clear to see that they were not in fact his nephew. It's just a precaution, in case he doesn't immediately recognize you because of..."

As she trailed off, she lifted her eyes to his and saw the hard set of his clenched jaw.

"Because of my scar."

"Prince Zuko didn't have one," she replied quickly. "If he did, there's no way he wouldn't have been found by now. That, or hundreds of teenaged boys would be trying to burn off half of their face-"

"Stop," Lee cut in with a sad and tired voice as he looked away. "I get it."

"I'm sorry," she said as sincerely as she could. "If you don't mind, can you tell me how it happened? Maybe that can help with convincing Iroh that you are in fact Zuko."

"I don't remember," he muttered, but not in the angry way that she anticipated. He was just tired. She could relate. "The first thing I can actively recall is waking up at the hospital with my head shaved and my face and shoulder covered in bandages. The nurses told me that I had been found at the docks and was brought there, but no one knows how I wound up on the docks in the first place or how I even got hurt. I couldn't even remember my name so they just started calling me Lee, and that's what I've gone by since then."

That pitying ache in her chest returned and she reached across the chasm between them and grasped the hand that had clenched tightly on itself on his knee. The sparks she felt when she touched his leg back at the palace returned, fizzling under her skin and causing a shiver to course through her whole body. Lee's head snapped up and he looked her in the eyes with stunned curiosity.

"Is that why you agreed to come with us so quickly?"

The unwavering intensity in his eyes pinned her in place. "I suppose. I have nothing to lose, so why not? It was this, or work on the docks for the rest of my life, wondering what could be out there for me."

"This may not be better," she countered as gently as she could. Lee's frown returned and she added, "There's a possibility Iroh will turn you down. What would you do then?"

Lee dropped his eyes and shrugged with that single shoulder. "I don't remember anything except what happened after I got burned. I can just start over in Ba Sing Se if that's where I'm left. I have no reason to return to the Fire Nation, at least not that I can remember."

"If you'd like, I know a technique that can possibly help recover your lost memories," she offered, choosing to ignore the strange sensation of all of her hair standing on edge. At Lee's confused stare, she clarified, "As a waterbender, I've been trained in the arts of healing. One of the lessons I learned was how to alleviate head injuries and recover any damage from them."

Lee's gaze dropped to their hands and he replied, "It's an old injury. It won't heal so easily."

"I'm not saying I'll be able to heal it entirely," she corrected, "but perhaps aid you in reshaping the damages and open the ability for you to recall the lost memories organically. I'm not a miracle worker but I've been told I'm one of the best."

Mentally, she added to herself, _But not good enough to save mom or help Gran Gran..._

Lee inhaled deeply, breaking her from her self-loathing reverie, and he removed his hand from hers. The loss of his warm touch made her feel oddly colder than she ever had been before.

"Maybe some other time," he mumbled as he stood and brushed out the wrinkles in his ratted shirt. "I'd rather get some food."

Katara stared up at him with a small hint of dismay, curious at his abrupt decline of her abilities and stunned by his quick change of subject. The only other person who could evade and avoid better than that was Aang, and she would know.

She stood, as well, then followed him out of the cabin and up towards the main deck. She figured with this quasi-privacy, she could start on their lessons.

"Okay," she began, causing Lee to look over his shoulder at her. "First thing's first: you need to straighten your posture. Your shoulders roll in too much and your stride is too clunky. You'll be quickly rejected by Iroh's attendants if you walk in like that."

"What's wrong with the way I walk?" Lee questioned as they climbed the stairs. "I just need to go from one place to another. I don't need to look like I'm in the ballet."

"Yes, but Prince Zuko was well-versed in high society and the expectations alongside it," Katara cajoled, causing Lee to grimace. "He was tall and proud, chest was always high and chin even higher. He was the son of the Fire Lord, heir to the throne, and if that's you then you have to act like it!"

He scowled at her and continued to stomp towards the higher deck where lunch was being served. Katara followed after him, chuckling all the while.

"He won't care how I walk," Lee commented as they reached Sokka, who had scarfed down at least two plates since she left him. "If this General Iroh sees me when we're in Ba Sing Se, and if I am truly Prince Zuko, then he won't care if I look prim and proper like a Prince." He cast his gaze to the sprawling waters around them and sighed, "Not that it matters, anyway. All I want to know is where I come from..."

* * *

"If this General Iroh sees me when we're in Ba Sing Se, and if I am truly Prince Zuko, then he won't care if I look prim and proper like a Prince."

Eyes darted up from his plate and he scanned for the voice that had spoken. There! On the opposite side of the deck, a tall boy with dark hair obscuring most of his face! He muttered something else, but turned to the two Water Tribe heathens near him and shrugged with a single shoulder and sat down next to the girl. He gave her an amused look at something she remarked on, then went to eating his food. He lifted his face towards the sun, letting his hair fall back and reveal a hideous burn scar overtaking most of the left side of his face. After one more moment of observation when the boy dropped his face and looked to the other boy with him, the most interesting discoveries revealed itself: the boy's golden eyes.

"Golden eyes like the Golden God..."

"What are you blathering on about, Garzu?"

Garzu blinked and reluctantly tore his attention away from the strange group of people on the other side of the deck, and replied, "Nothing at all, Lang... Can I use your messenger hawk?"

Lang raised his eyebrow skeptically, but nodded and handed him a piece of parchment and a stick of coal to write with as he rose and fetched his bird. Quickly, Garzu looked at the boy again and mulled over the words that he had spoken, then wrote.

 _"O Honorable and Esteemed Zhao-_

 _Urgent news from the sea, from your loyal servants. We are on a vessel en route to the Earth Kingdom and there is a boy on board who bears a striking resemblance to the Fire Prince. Though I cannot gather if he is truly the Prince at this distance, it seems he is planning on heading to General Iroh in Ba Sing Se with people of the Water Tribes. I will keep you informed as our travels continue, should you request it, but I can conclude with high confidence that this is Prince Zuko, save for the large burn scar on the left side of his face._

 _Ever diligent,_

 _Former Col. Garzu."_

He folded the parchment and sealed it with wax, then wrapped it with a black ribbon and sent the hawk off back towards the mainland.

* * *

"There's a message for you, sir."

Dark eyes looked up from the desk and eyed the squat man in the doorway. After a half second of deliberation, he looked back to the document he had been reading and replied, "Thank you, Shinu. Place it on my desk."

"It is urgent, sir."

He glanced up again and frowned. "From who?"

"Former Colonel Garzu, sir."

A scowl made its way to his face and he extended his hand to take the message. After he snatched it from Shinu's hand, he broke the wax seal and discarded the ribbon that had been hastily wrapped around it. Eyes scanned the message and when they landed on _that_ name, his hands crushed the paper. An insurmountable anger rushed through him, burning in his veins and scalding his lungs. _How?!_ How on earth is this possible?! The entire palace had been swept through and every body of the Royal Family had been accounted for, save for Iroh. But his scouts reported the old man had escaped to Ba Sing Se on a refuge boat. One of the rebels he sent to kill off the royals had told him that _brat_ was burned to a crisp, unrecognizable save for the crown in the ashes that was once his hair.

"Shinu," he barked, unable to rein in his fury. Shinu saluted him and waited for his order. "Fetch Ten for an assignment."

"Of course, Your Worship, Zhao."

He scowled as his underling left the room, and he went to smoothing out the message from Garzu and cursed under his breath. That brat could ruin everything he built. If the people of the Fire Nation learn that he is alive, they would revolt. When the Royal Family died a decade ago, he and others leaders of the rebellion stepped forward to "rebuild" what had been broken from years of docile pacifism. The military was restructured to have more power over the people and began preparing to start an all-out war against the rest of the nations. The Fire Nation was powerful enough to wipe them all out, but he chose to build up his armies and plan out the perfect strategy that would enable the Fire Nation to become the _only_ nation. It was only a matter of time when they were completely ready, and soon.

He abruptly stood, his chair scratching against the old wood of the floors, and he turned to look out towards the ocean outside his window. A cruise ship was approaching the docks to the south, ready to drop off more tourists to the "safer" areas of the Fire Nation. If they only knew...

If Prince Zuko was alive, the people would rebel against him and his fellow leaders. It would all be over. They would see him as a fraud and demand he let the Prince take his rightful place as Fire Lord...

He could not let that happen.

"Honorable Zhao, Ten is here to see you, sir."

Zhao turned around from the window to see a towering man enter the room, silent and strong and deadly as his weaponized bending. Zhao stared up at him and handed him the letter from Garzu as he said without beating around the bush, "Prince Zuko is alive. I want you to find him, and end him."

The man stared at him for a moment longer before bowing slightly at his neck. When he lifted his head up again, Zhao stared straight at the tattooed eye on his forehead. Without waiting for another word, he ducked through the doorway and left the room, leaving Zhao alone to curse Agni and his god-forsaken line.

* * *

The salty ocean sprayed his skin as they moved through another large swell. Lee frowned and looked at the sky, noticing the darkening clouds to the north and their effect on the seas underneath them. The crew was yelling and running about, shifting the sails and steering the ship more south to prevent going right into the storm, and Lee couldn't help but notice the futility of it all. After all, they had a waterbender on board. Lee didn't know how strong Katara was, but if anyone could prevent the boat from capsizing it would be her.

"Lee, we should go below deck."

He turned around and saw Sokka approaching him, momentarily losing his balance as a wave hit the side of the boat.

"The storm will reach us soon and we all need some rest before we arrive in Yu Dao tomorrow."

Lee sighed and followed Sokka to the lower decks and to their room. He was lucky enough to snag the lower bunk while Sokka had taken the one above him. Katara took the cot across from them and was already brushing out her clean hair before bed. Lee noticed that it reached her waist, something hard to tell when it was pulled back into her braid and tucked into a twist. Sokka had also untied his hair, but it was shaved on the sides and the top that was pulled into a ponytail was barely long enough to graze his cheekbones.

As for Lee, he noticed he hadn't washed his hair in over a week, which was typically normal, and it was starting to get embarrassingly long, even for him. It almost reached his shoulders now instead of the shag that was just long enough to hide his scar. But perhaps growing it out would be best. According to Katara during one of her long and yawn-inducing "Royal Lessons," the Fire Nation royals kept their hair long as a symbol of their status. Typically, Prince Zuko had his swept up into a phoenix tail but it would be in a topknot for official functions. The way his hair laid now, it would barely make a small phoenix tail without pieces falling out around his face.

He sighed and ran his fingers through it. He tried to suppress the grimace he made when his fingers snagged on a knot.

"Lee, when was the last time you washed your hair?"

He froze up and stared at Katara with wide eyes. Her amused face was not lost on him. "Uhh... last week?"

Silently, she stood - with that stupid look on her face still - and grabbed a small bag out of her larger one. She pressed it to his chest and began steering him towards the door. "Bathroom is down the hall, hang a right, then it's in another small hallway to your left. It's the only door in that little hall. Please make yourself presentable so it doesn't look like we pulled a homeless guy off the street."

Unable to resist, Lee smirked and quipped, "But you did pull a homeless guy off the street."

He didn't want to admit it out loud, but her responding pout was adorable as she said, "Technically, you broke into our house so we didn't do any pulling whatsoever."

" _Technically_ , that palace was _my_ house," Lee countered wryly, causing Sokka to chortle behind them and Katara to glare up at him. "If we're being technical, here."

"Just go bathe, you heathen!" she ordered in exasperation as she shoved him into the hallway. Sokka's laughs were heard all the way down the hall and as he turned the corner. Lee smiled to himself as he entered the wash room and immediately was stunned to see the quality that was in front of him. Despite the almost-decrepit appearance of the rest of the ship, the washroom was modern and up-to-date with everything. With the small crew and handful of passengers, the room itself was big enough for a small tub and a showerhead, but otherwise was spacious with the sink and countertops and linen closet. Lee was pleased, if not surprised, to see there were actual towels in the linen closet and not rags like he would use at the orphanage! He had to resist the urge to bury his face in the plush fabric and went about to getting himself cleaned up.

With a content sigh, Lee started the water and pulled out the body wash that Katara used. He took a quick whiff and was relieved to find it wasn't some overly-feminine scent but something more akin to orange blossom. He hadn't expected something girly, but he had only known the girl for a little over three days. For all he knew, she could have been the epitome of the hoity-toity rich girls he would see in the shopping district, or as... promiscuous as the ones in the red lights.

Katara was... Katara. And for some reason his ever-present curiosity urged him to learn more about her, even if she got on his nerves more than half the time. The other half she was doing heartfelt things like comforting him in the wake of his amnesia or healing his wounds despite not even knowing his name and it made him... feel things.

He felt a relief wash through him that removed a bit of the unease that had settled in his chest since he wound up at the orphanage all those years ago. Maybe if all of this stuff with General Iroh and Ba Sing Se doesn't work out, he could always stay with Katara and Sokka. In the few days he spent with them, he felt more of a bond with them than anyone else he had ever met. Even Jee, who had practically raised him.

Lee mulled it all over as he finished washing himself up and rubbed the towel against his wet hair. What would he gain if he met with this Iroh anyway? What would _they_ gain? What was the whole purpose of it all? What would he do if Iroh accepted him as his long lost nephew? It's not like he could just waltz back to the Fire Nation and go, _"Hey, I'm the Prince that's been missing for ten years! Sorry you all have had to suffer under a tyrannical regime while I suffered from amnesia! Now I'm going to become Fire Lord and fix it all!"_

He paused and looked at his reflection in the mirror, lingering on the scar on his face and the matching one on his shoulder. Is that what he would have to do? He wasn't filled in _at all_ in regards to this plan. Why exactly would Katara and Sokka look to find Zuko for General Iroh in the first place? Out of the goodness of their hearts? Based on Katara acted with him, that could likely be true.

A frown made its way onto his face. There had to be an explanation for their hospitality to him, and he-

Something caused the ship careen to the side, making Lee stumble and knock his left shoulder into the wall. He let out a shout of surprise and pain, and he did his best to right himself and figure out what the hell was going on. As quickly as he could with the rocking shit, he pulled on his trousers then shrugged his shirt over his head and gathered Katara's things in her toiletry bag. As he bounded out of the wash room and back down the hall, he was met with the shouts of the crew above deck and the sound of Katara's cry of his name.

"I'm here!" he called out as he rounded the last corner to their cabin. She was standing in the doorway, clutching the frame, and stared at him with wide and fearful eyes, hair falling in wavy curtains over her shoulders. He reached her and glanced over her shoulder to see Sokka stuffing their things in their bags. "What's going on?"

A crash of thunder outside shook the entire ship.

"Earth Kingdom ship spotted us and is demanding to board," she gasped as she ripped her toiletry bag from his hands and tossed it to Sokka. "They want to see our papers but it turns out our papers are incorrect. We can't let them find us or our stuff so we have to go hide in the boiler room."

Lee scowled and looked over to Sokka. "Why can't we just explain what's going on?"

Sokka grunted as he finished putting away his overcoat and hoisted the bags over his shoulders. "Because the Earth Kingdom is very strict about who can and cannot go into their waters. If we have incorrect papers, they won't allow us to continue on and will put us on a dinghy back to the Fire Nation."

"Well, shit."

Sokka's wry grin lightened the suddenly dark situation. "No kidding."

"What's the problem with the papers?" Lee asked as Sokka pushed past Katara and started heading down the halls that led to the boiler room.

"It's written in blue ink," Sokka replied, "when it's supposed to be black."

Lee met Katara's eyes and frowned. "Well, why is it incorrect in the first place? It's not your fault they're wrong. You can just explain that when they come to you!"

Katara's eyes moved to Sokka's and Lee saw them exchange something secret in their gazes. Lee scowled and waited, but neither of them replied until they reached the heavy door that led to the boiler room.

Sokka had heaved a deep breath and placed a heavy hand on Lee's left shoulder. He refused to wince at the pain. "It's hard to explain, and I promise we will. But first, we need to make it through this impromptu bump in the road."

Lee followed the siblings into the boiler room and gasped at the sudden difference in temperature. Outside on the upper deck, the air was crisp, salty, and cool. Below deck, the coolness lingered but with a more damp feel. The boiler room, however, was just that: boiling. Why on earth would Sokka choose to hide in here?

"Quick, this way!" Sokka ducked behind one of the boilers up against the wall and set down the bags. "If they happen to open the door and check, no one will come in and look this deep into the room."

"Were you planning on staying in here for long?" Lee hissed, ignoring the way the humid air suffocated him. "You don't know how long they're going to be searching the ship! And it's getting hot in here."

"It shouldn't be long," Sokka replied. "Besides, it's not _that_ bad."

Lee glared at him and wiped a whole layer of sweat from his forehead. Internally, he bemoaned the lost sensation of being clean and tried to fight his exhaustion. It was already late and this boiler room was sapping all of his energy. He spared a glance to both Sokka and Katara to see them a little more composed than he felt, but sweating nonetheless. Lee warned with weariness seeping into his voice, "I hope for all of our sake that you're right."

"Guys, the best we can do is save our energy and try to keep cool," Katara sighed as she looked between the boys. "Routine checks on ships don't take longer than a half an hour, so as long as we can last that long without drawing attention to ourselves, we should be fine."

"We're going to have to stow away when we dock," Sokka stated solely to his sister. Katara frowned and he explained, "The check is going to make a headcount. If any more or less than what the naval ship records walk onto that dock, the captain will get in serious trouble."

Katara groaned and rubbed her face. "I guess when we get closer to shore I can bend us to the delivery docks. If I guessed correctly, we'll get into Yu Dao's harbor by sundown so it'll be easier to come in unnoticed."

As the siblings discussed their plan of action, Lee tried to listen for any ruckus outside the door. If someone knew they were in here and tried to apprehend them, they would be trapped. Unless Katara managed to bend water into the ship from outside, but that could easily capsize them and they would be stuck at sea forever. And he refused to bend in close quarters. He knew how to fight with his bending - where he first learned the moves, he'll never know unless he regains his lost memories - and he was scary good at it. He had discovered it when he started getting picked on by his appearance and bent accidentally at the older bully, and again when he had to defend one of the younger girls from groping hands looking for a new act to put on down at the red lights.

Though, he stopped fighting with it when he found out that his scars were from burns about three years into his stay at Jee's orphanage. Since then, he relied on his unexplained hand-to-hand fighting prowess to take on the bullies and the pedophiles. His bending was only used practically, like lighting the stove fire or illuminating a dark, abandoned hallway. He was the only person around him that could bend fire as strongly as he did, so no one could really teach him how to control it perfectly. All he could remember was deep and steady breathing. It had helped him so far.

But in these close quarters, with air thick with so much humidity, who knows what would happen if he let go of his control?

He took a deep breath when his head started to pound with too much thought, but it didn't do too much to ease the dizziness he was starting to feel. How long had they been in the boiler room? It had to be at least an hour now based on how hot he was getting...

"Lee?"

The question seemed muffled to his ears.

"Hey, Lee, man open your eyes!"

 _They are open, Sokka._

"Lee? What's wrong?"

 _It's just a little hot, Katara._

"Shit! I think the air is getting to him!" Sokka's disembodied voice said from far away. "He needs water!"

"Hold on, Lee!"

"Lee, man, wake up!"

 _"Lee!"_

 _"- the girls in the city-"_

 _"The Curse of Agni-"_

 _"Run, my son! Flee before they find you!"_

 _"Deep and steady."_

 _"Zuko!"_

With a gasp, Lee opened his eyes shot up as he clutched his chest. His heart raced a mile a minute and refused to slow, no matter how much he tried to breath deeply and steady himself.

"Whoa, slow down."

His eyes darted around in the dark, trying to find the owner of the familiar voice, and jumped when a pair of cold hands rested on his shoulders and tried to push him back down.

"Calm down, Lee, it's just me."

 _Katara._ He felt that wave of relief cool him instantly and he followed her guidance down to the mattress. "What happened?"

Katara removed her hands from his shoulders and he heard her shuffling something nearby. "The heat in the boiler room made you pass out. I don't know why, maybe it's a firebender thing or maybe something is wrong with the machinery, but you've been out for almost a whole day. We should be arriving at Yu Dao in just a little bit."

Lee tried to sit up again, but Katara pushed him back down onto the mattress. "You need to take it easy until you get some water and food in you. Sokka already has our bags packed and ready to go. Once you're ready, we're going to use my bending to get us to shore."

The darkness of the room was suddenly drowned out by the glow of Katara's healing water. Lee watched it, transfixed, as she moved her glowing palm to the scarred area of his left shoulder. He winced when the icy touch reached him, and she mumbled out an apology before letting the glow seep into his skin.

"Did this happen the same time as...?" Her eyes lifted and met his right before darting to the left side of his face.

"I assume so."

"Is that why you only shrug with one arm?"

"I don't-" Lee blinked and thought it over. "I guess... I didn't think much about it. I can't feel much in the shoulder area itself. Too much nerve damage, apparently. Though I can still move it."

Katara coaxed the water around and she murmured, "Well, it feels like the bones were broken and healed improperly. I'm trying to repair that without having to rebreak the bones. At least give you some better flexibility and sensation again. Maybe I can do the same with the one..."

Lee met her eyes through the glow of her water and he fought hard to not get lost there. He had so many questions, so many problems with the plan on getting him to Ba Sing Se. He wanted to know _why_ they wanted to reunite General Iroh and Prince Zuko, _why_ they thought he could be the lost prince... But he also wanted to know why Katara had so much sadness in her eyes when she looked at him.

As he opened his mouth to speak, there was a sharp knock on the door. From the other side, Lee could hear Sokka say, "Come on, Kat, we gotta go. Someone told the Earth Kingdom sailors that there are stowaways, so the captain is getting antsy and sped up the ship."

Whatever trance had fallen upon them had broken, and Katara looked away as she sighed and pulled the healing water away from his skin. The whole room was plunged in darkness once more. "I'll let you get dressed. And there's some bread and water for you on my cot to tide you over until we meet up with our contact. When you're done, meet us up top."

Lee assumed she stood and headed towards the door, and a protest was lodged in his throat. He couldn't ask her, no matter how much he wanted to. After all she's done for him, the least he could do was not question her intentions. The door closed behind her with a resounding click.

He waited another moment before rolling off of the cot and stumbling towards the other across from him. With a flick of his wrist, the lantern on the wall lit up and doused everything in its orange light. Once his eyes adjusted, he could see his shirt and trousers were laid out on the sheets next to a half loaf of bread and water skin. When he lifted them, he could tell that they had been washed, and faintly he could see some of the rips and holes had been stitched back up and even taken in so they would fit him better. His eyes moved to where Katara had gone and sighed.

He methodically shrugged into his shirt and pants, careful of the new stitching and marveling at their better fit, and he grabbed the food before he walked to the door. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement and immediately went to strike, but was halted at the sight of his own reflection on a warped mirror that hung on the wall. He stepped to it, haunted by the way his eyes seemed to glow within the hallow shadows created by the fire in the lantern, and he lifted his hand to press against the reflection of his scar.

"Hey, Lee, let's go!"

He listened to Sokka and cast one last lingering look to the mirror before heading out of the room. Sokka was waiting for him outside, tapping his foot impatiently, and Lee gave him a slight nod before walking with him up to the deck. They reached topside and Lee could see the moon was already high in the sky. Apparently, the stop by the Earth Kingdom navy deterred their arrival time just a bit more than Katara expected.

The waterbender was waiting for them on the port side, by the dinghy that dangled from the side of the boat. She met Lee's eyes briefly before casting her glance away to the waters churning beneath them. Lee frowned, but did not comment. Instead, he followed Sokka as the older Water Tribesman hoisted his sister inside the little boat and then climbed in himself.

"Lee, I'm going to need you to cut the ropes."

Lee whirled around and stared at Sokka like he had grown another arm. "What? We'll drop right into the water and break the boat."

"Not if Katara cushions the fall with her bending," Sokka replied with a smug smile. Lee looked over Sokka's shoulder to see Katara already rising to her feet to bend the water up. Below, the sea rose up to them and surrounded the boat like a liquid cloud. Lee frowned, but he did what he was told and took his old knife out of his pouch and hacked it against the rope pulley above them. Rather than cut each of the four ropes that suspended the dinghy from the pulley, Lee figured it would be faster. And he could always cut away the rope should it get in the way later.

Once the dinghy was freed, Katara lowered the water back with the rest of the sea and started moving her arms in a windmill motion, picking up speed and pushing the boat through the water like a jet ski. Through the silvery light of the moon, Lee could see the shore of the Earth Kingdom swiftly come into focus and reach out to them. Up a small hill was a bustling city built into the base of a sprawling mountain range, lights still shining even this late into the night over the walls that surrounded it. The sounds of frivolity filled the night air over the sounds of the splashing water against their cramped little boat.

Katara slowed the dinghy after about five minutes of shooting them through the water, just enough to slice through the water but not launch them onto the beach. They reached the shore at least a half mile from the docks, but still close enough to not be entirely lost when they attempted to go inland.

"I'll grab the bags," Sokka commented as they all started climbing out of the dingy. Lee looked to him as he added, "You two go ahead and see if you can find Aang at the temple. He said he would be there but that was over a week ago when he claimed it."

At Katara's crestfallen sigh, Lee opened his mouth to question her reluctance at Sokka's order. But she cut him off with an icy glare that made him promptly snap his lips shut and follow her as she trekked through the sand towards the walled city.

"Is that Yu Dao?"

Katara nodded and pulled out their papers from her pocket. "The Jade City, once the largest and most wealthy of the Fire Nation colonies before it was assimilated into the United Nations. When they dismantled, it was allowed to rejoin the Earth Kingdom. Now it acts as a haven between the nations, still upholding the values of the United Nations before they fell apart. Because of a law put in place before they were ceded back into the Earth Kingdom, this is the only city in the entirety of the country that can serve liquor and host gambling past sundown."

Lee glanced down at her and fought a smirk. "Have you, perchance, partaken in those particular things?"

As they stepped into the lights right at the walls of the city, Katara glared at him and sneered, "What on earth are you saying? You sound like a drunk poet."

Right as Lee opened his mouth to retort, he was cut off by a yellow blur slamming into Katara.

 _"KATARA! YOU'RE HERE!"_

Lee was - surprisingly - ready to strike, but Katara's light laugh and pat on the back of her attacker eased him. Slightly.

"Hello, Kai!" she replied in a strangely affectionate tone. Lee looked down to see the blur was a young teenager, probably barely thirteen, with a shaved head and a wide grin. "Did Master Aang send you to meet us?"

"Master Aang?" the kid, Kai, chortled. "Why are you so formal? And yes, he did. He's waiting for you." Kai turned and landed his bright grey eyes on Lee, eager for some odd reason. "Is this him?"

Katara stepped away from Kai's hug and placed her hand on Lee's shoulder. "Kai, this is Lee."

The boy's face fell. "He's not him."

"We think he is," Katara defended.

"But you called him 'Lee.'"

Katara sighed and dropped her arm from Lee. "We'll explain it later. Can you lead us inside?"

Kai seemed to remember why he was there in the first place and nodded quickly before he grabbed Katara's hand and tugged her to the gates. On both sides of the archway stood a guard, wearing thick green armor and stern looks on their faces. Katara quickly held up the papers she had pulled out of her pocket, then the guard on the right nodded before stepping to the side and letting the three people walk through the gates. Even in the darkness of night, Lee could see why Katara had said it was called the Jade City. Every building was a rich green, sparkling in the starlight and full of bustling life. People were still walking about, even this late, and heading to bars and buildings where bands played loud music that echoed down the streets.

Kai led them down an alleyway that led to another walled area. At the entrance, he knocked three times before the double doors slid open to let them in. Once his eyes adjusted to the dimmer streetlamps, Lee was surprised to find himself in an abbey with a temple straight ahead at the top of a large staircase, built into the base of the mountains. It's grand feel reminded him of the arena in Caldera where the fights were held every Saturday night. Or the temple where the Fire Sages had once prayed before the fall of the kingdom.

"Master Aang should still be in the temple," Kai explained as he led them forward. Lee was keenly aware of the emptiness of the courtyard, and the conflicting sensation of multiple sets of eyes on them. He glanced around, as inconspicuously as he could, and saw there were no monks in sight, save for Kai. The young boy led them up the temple stairs, bounding up them as if he had the air to assist him. When he reached the top, he bounced eagerly as he waited for Katara and Lee to join him. "Master Aang was so excited that you were coming, Katara!"

Lee could see Katara literally grimace at the remark. "Was he now?"

Kai nodded enthusiastically before he took her hand again and led her through the grand doors of the temple. "He was going on and on about how you guys would be coming in. He didn't know for sure, but he knew. He knows everything!"

Katara met Lee's gaze and he snickered at her exasperated eye roll. Instead of remarking on Kai's comment, Katara let herself be led into the bowels of the temple where this Master Aang would be waiting for them. He must be an old geezer, for being a Master and all, and for his foresight at their arrival. Though, Lee was perplexed at Kai's mention of the Master's excitement. Most old men wouldn't be bothered with such frivolity. Then again, Lee glanced over at Katara and the fact that she was worrying her plump lower lip between her teeth, and he realized that most people don't get to have guests as... exquisite as her.

When they reached another set of double doors, engraved with the extinct symbol of the Air Nation, Lee shook away his embarrassment at the mental comment and Kai knocked twice. "Master Aang? You have guests."

Lee exchanged another look with Katara, who looked rather annoyed, and a clear voice from the other side of the doors replied, "Let them in, Kai."

Kai bowed and said, "Of course, Master."

It was a little creepy.

Kai opened the doors and stepped to the side so Katara and Lee could step inside the room. Inside, the ceiling was much higher than the rest of the halls leading there. It stretched high, probably built into the mountain's cave system, and was in a circular shape like a cylinder. The walls were lined with shelves upon shelves of lit candles and incense, the smoke giving the room a haze that made it difficult to see the monk seated at the altar straight ahead. Kai bowed as he closed the doors behind them and the monk at the altar started to stand.

"I was so happy to hear that you were returning, Katara," he said as he straightened fully, but kept his face from them still. "Sokka told me that you were going to come back and I was beside myself with excitement."

Lee watched as the monk turned on his heel, deliberately slow, as if he was being dramatic or something, and his eyes widened when he was struck with the sight of a _teenager_ with blue arrow tattoos on his head and hands. The boy's grin was wide, as wide as Kai's, and his eyes gleamed, even at this distance. As he descended the stairs that led to the altar, he spread his arms open and kept his grinning gaze on Katara.

"It's good to see you, Kat," he said as he reached them. Lee had to blink away his surprise. This monk was barely even taller than Lee's shoulders! How could he be a Master?!

"You, too, Aang."

The boy's eyes closed with his wide smile and he turned his attention to Lee. "And who is this? I don't believe I know you."

As Lee opened his mouth to reply, Katara cut in front of him and placed her hand on his arm, gently, reassuringly, and she stated, "This is a friend... The one we told you about."

At her hinting tone, Aang's eyes widened and he nodded with understanding before giving Lee another smile. "I see. So you're supposed to be Prince Zuko. You know, I met the Prince once, a while back when we were both kids."

"Aang..." Katara's tone held a warning.

The monk glanced at her briefly before bringing his attention back to Lee. "It was at a diplomatic summit. My Master, Gyatso, was meeting with Fire Lord Ozai to sign documents allowing Air Nomads to roam freely throughout the Fire Nation without paying the taxes. Since I was Gyatso's first-line pupil, I had the honor of coming and spending time with the Royal Family. Like Prince Zuko."

Lee felt that empty sense of guilt start to rot in his chest and he took a half-step back away from Aang. "I-"

"Aang, let it go," Katara cut in peevishly. "He lost his memory. So even if he did meet you over ten years ago, he won't remember it. He can't."

Surprise was clear in Aang's eyes, which darted back and forth between Lee, Katara, and Lee's scar. He lingered there a little bit longer and sighed, "Well, Prince Zuko didn't have a scar. But who knows what could have happened in the past ten years. I'm sorry to have put you on the spot like that."

When Lee went to dismiss politely, Katara cut in again, "It's quite alright, Aang. Actually, we were hoping you could help us."

"Sure, anything for you."

Lee didn't miss the guilty look that passed over Katara's face as her cheeks darkened slightly and she ducked her head. "We need tickets to get into Ba Sing Se. The ones Haru gave us were only good to get us through the barricade and into Yu Dao. And our papers are wrong, too. I know you are on the Committee of Immigration in Yu Dao so I thought..."

Aang's hand rested on Katara's shoulders and he gave them both a smile. "Say no more. Go clean up and get some food and rest and I'll have them ready for you before first light."

"Are you sure?" Katara asked quietly. It was a side of her Lee had never seen before, so meek and unsure. It made him wary of her intentions again.

"Of course!" Aang exclaimed. In a quick second, Aang spun away from them on a gust of air, stunning Lee enough to cement him in his place, and Aang landed lightly on his feet at the top of the altar. "Just tell Sokka to fix the door to the men's dorms and we have a deal!"

As the monk sat back down and effectively shut them out of his meditation, Katara led Lee out of the room and back into the hall where Kai was waiting for them. The eager younger monk was practically bouncing on his toes when the door was shut and he started leading them down the halls towards what Lee assumed was the dormitories.

"Since the end of the rebellion, a lot of people fled the Fire Nation and came here," Kai stated as he turned another corner. "The Nomads have been trying to assist as many as possible by helping them relocate to the abandoned colonies or old temples, but it's hard to keep up. This is one of the few times the dorms aren't full of refuges."

"Why were so many people fleeing?" Lee couldn't help but ask.

Kai's sad face glanced at him over his narrow shoulders and he replied quietly, "When the Royal Family was murdered, some old Generals and Admirals took over. They upped security throughout the whole country, closing off their borders and deporting anyone who wasn't a natural-born citizen. Families were ripped apart, the economy crashed. Some people just did what was best for their families and fled. Since there wasn't any real leadership, the poor kept getting poorer and the rich kept getting richer. The Fire Nation used to be a grand and beaming beacon for all, but now it's a shadow of what it once was."

Lee felt something dark and heavy settle into his chest. The amount of frowning he was doing that day was starting to make his jaw hurt.

"There's one man who everyone thinks started it all," Kai added, soft enough that it was barely heard by even Lee's sensitive ears. "He threatened the Royal Family and just a few weeks later, the whole city was ransacked. With no real authority, the country is falling apart. Master Aang told me that not much can be done about it now. Sooner or later, it will either fade or they will start another war, which won't end well for anyone."

Lee spared a look to Katara, who's face had turned grim with a scowl and downcast eyes. He tried to ask her what was wrong, but Kai quickly stopped and spun on his heels at a forked hallway.

"Alright!" he chirped, breaking the somber mood that had befallen the group. "Girls are to the left, boys are to the right. I was told Sokka is already in the dorms with your stuff, not-Zuko, and Katara's stuff is in hers. There should still be some food in the sitting rooms if you're hungry and the wash rooms are connected to the hot springs if you'd like to use them."

Without waiting for reply, the little monk walked between the travelers back to where they had come from. Katara sighed and rubbed her arm before flashing Lee and uneasy grin.

"See you in the morning?"

He blinked and nodded dumbly as she gave him a small wave and started down towards the girl's dormitory, leaving Lee alone in the hallway. The strange heaviness that was in his chest never lifted, not even when he made his way to the dorms and saw Sokka fixing up the door and his stuff on a soft and warm bed. It even lingered when he made use of the hot springs and settled into a deep sleep for the first time in his entire life.

And his dreams were littered with images of engraved daggers, Pai Sho tiles, a golden man, and blue eyes.

* * *

Katara stared at the reflection in the steaming water and sighed.

She didn't want Lee to learn of the Fire Nation's dark history that way. She wanted him to ease into it, to learn of the grandeur that it once had been before the overthrowing of the monarchy and the decline following it. If she taught him that first, then he would see it as a personal tragedy, not some distant fact from a history book.

She had been there when it happened, when the Palace was broken into and the Royal Family murdered. She heard Princess Azula and Fire Lady Ursa get slaughtered in the gardens in which the Queen frequented, how Fire Lord Ozai knew the rebels were coming and begged Prince Zuko and General Iroh to flee and then proceeded to try and fight as many rebels as he could before he was struck down in front of his throne.

How murmurs in the following weeks of a Curse of Agni that had plagued the Royal Family for generations and the rebellion and subsequent destruction of the Royal Line was proof of its existence.

How Lee had murmured those same words when he had passed out from getting overheated on the boat.

After she pulled herself out of the hot spring, ignoring the splash on the other side of the wooden wall, she bent the water off of her body and out of her hair before wrapping a towel around herself and making her way into the dormitory.

Tomorrow began the real work: teach Lee everything that Prince Zuko would have known, and hopefully get to Ba Sing Se before someone catches onto their plan. Then convince Toph and Suki, then General Iroh that Lee was actually Prince Zuko and receive the reward money that would pay for the treatment Gran Gran needed.

One step at a time.

As Katara pulled on her clothes and settled into bed, she thought of Lee's stricken face when Kai spoke of the fall of the Fire Nation. How his golden eyes caught the light and looked almost fearful at the horrid truth that came from his home.

He didn't know that Katara had been one of the refuges that fled Caldera, nor that she had been a witness to the fall of what could possibly be his kingdom. He didn't know that the tragedy was connected to him and the family he could have possibly lost. It was too overwhelming, for all of them.

A tear escaped her eye as she laid her head on her pillow, and she cursed the pain she felt on his behalf. She couldn't be feeling now. Not when they had a job to do.

* * *

Heavy feet planted themselves on the docks of Pouhai, the glint from the full moon's light shining off of the metal arm attached to overly-broad shoulders. Dark eyes looked up to the mountain range that led to Yu Dao, where his target was likely resting after days at sea.

He would stop him from getting to Ba Sing Se.

Tomorrow, he would get his head.

* * *

 _tbc._


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.**_

 _ **A/N** sorry I've been gone for so long! I was catching up on commissioned works and dealing with moving out of my house. But I'm here and I'm still going strong with this story!_

* * *

 _ **Chapter Three**_

* * *

Katara woke at dawn to the sounds of giggles. When she groggily opened her eyes, she saw three girls squished together in the windowsill that overlooked the training courtyard, obviously admiring the view of someone training below. She groaned and rubbed her face, figuring it was Aang they were oogling. He was regarded like a God to the Nomads, as if he was some sort of savior or messiah, so it would be understandable that his pupils would fawn over him training in his airbending.

He wasn't any sort of that nonsense.

She thought back to when they had first became boyfriend and girlfriend, when she was thirteen and leaving the South Pole with Sokka to find a way to pay for Gran Gran's treatment. They had met before, one time when Aang was visiting the Southern Water Tribe with his Master for a meeting with her father, Chief Hakoda. As she and Sokka headed north, they ran into Aang while he had been in the Southern Air Temple on a pilgrimage. He remembered her when they ran into each other on their travels, apparently still incredibly smitten by the Chief's daughter. Aang quickly asked her to be his girlfriend, and not really knowing any better, Katara accepted and he traveled with her and Sokka to the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation to find help for Kanna.

As they grew closer through the months and short years, Katara realized Aang had some sort of superiority complex. According to the monks of the Air Nomads, he was the reincarnation of an ancient deity that had once protected the people of the four nations: the Avatar. Although the Avatar spirit itself had moved on back to the Spirit World, declaring itself no longer needed in the world, Aang apparently was the reincarnation of the last known Avatar and was hailed as a superior being among his people.

It didn't translate as well outside of the Nomads.

After a few months in the Earth Kingdom and almost a year in the Fire Nation, Aang realized that it wasn't as fun for him as he originally thought, so he told Katara he was going to leave and go to Yu Dao to finish his training. He had already received his arrows, but he felt that he had more to learn since he was _definitely_ going to be chosen as a part of the council that led the Nomads through the all of the temples.

He didn't even kiss her good-bye.

Sokka kept in touch with him, mostly through letters and talking with friends they met in their travels as they moved towards Caldera, where the siblings decided to roost. Aang's master passed away during the time and Aang had been promoted to the Head Master at the Central Air Temple. Correspondence afterwards tapered off unless absolutely necessary.

And during that time, Sokka and Katara sent what medicine and herbs they could to help prolong Gran Gran's life, and two healers from the Northern Tribe came down to assist despite their Chief's former decline of their services. Nothing that they did truly rid Kanna of her ailment, but it eased her suffering sufficiently. That did enough to lessen the worry Katara felt for her Gran Gran only slightly, but not enough to stop their search for a real cure.

They found out that the treatment needed to cure her was found in the mountains of the northern Fire Nation near the ruins of the Sun Warrior Tribe, but it was very hard to obtain and had to be processed by hours upon hours of labor to ensure the plants could be digested without poisoning the already sick person. The cost to get someone to gather enough for the treatment, process and send it to the Southern Water Tribe cost more than Katara and Sokka could afford on their meager funds from odd jobs and cons throughout the city. It would take them decades to raise enough to get it to her, and by then it would absolutely be too late.

After a long day of working at the hospital on the eastern side of the city, they had stumbled upon a posting about His Royal Highness General Iroh looking for his lost nephew Prince Zuko and the reward he was offering to the ones responsible for bringing them back together. It was in that moment that Sokka hatched his plan: find Zuko -or someone who looked exactly like him - and bring him to Iroh for the money. It was harebrained and desperate, but they were barely making enough as it was to keep food in their bellies and clothes on their backs. He sent word to Aang, letting him know what they planned to do, and quickly got his acceptance and assistance. Aang promised to send a friend named Haru that they met on the ferry to Crescent Island with papers that would allow them to travel to the Earth Kingdom when they found the missing Prince.

But he wouldn't be able to help more than that because of his duties for his people.

Now, almost a whole year later after Sokka devised this plan, Aang was hopefully going to fulfill his promise to help get them to Ba Sing Se and to General Iroh with a Prince Zuko look-alike in tow. It was the least he could do after ditching them.

Katara rolled over and sat up, grimacing at the giggling girls and the knots in her hair. She stood and ignored the way her body ached for more rest, then waddled over to where the girls were gawking.

"What's so interesting that you're waking me up this early?"

All three girls whirled around and gasped at her sudden appearance.

"Master Katara!" the smallest one, Kiki, exclaimed. "We're so sorry to have woken you! It's just..."

The tallest girl, Yin, elbowed the girl in her ribs and smiled sweetly up at the waterbender. "It's nothing. We're just going to be -"

"Who's down in the training courtyard?" Katara cut to the chase, unimpressed at the girls' lack of finesse.

Sari, the last girl, sighed with defeat as the other girls glared at her, as if it would shut her up. "The cute firebending boy is down there."

"Cute firebending...?" she trailed off with confusion, then remembered her new traveling companion. Katara gently pushed past the girls and looked down into the courtyard. Sure enough, Lee was down there and was shooting out blasts of fire from his fists. One of the older monks, Benzai, was instructing him on some more complex forms. If she remembered correctly, Benzai was born from a Fire Nation father and airbending mother, so he could know some things about that specific bending art, especially since his father was a martial arts teacher on the mainland.

She couldn't help but become mesmerized by the way Lee's muscles moved under his skin, strong and toned but not overly bulky. After all, he was practically starving when they met. It was strange to see such strength in him considering the circumstances of his life. Perhaps his strength came from manual labor. She did hear that older orphans, before they're allowed to leave the orphanage on their own at the age of eighteen, would be allowed to work under the supervision of their guardians to get skills and funds for when they were on their own. She figured Lee had most likely been volunteered out for the heavy duty jobs, like bladesmithing or construction. He had the right build for it, and he was a firebender. Those qualities would be very useful in those trades.

Even so, the way his body moved hypnotized her and made her stomach do strange flips.

"See? Even Master Katara can't stop looking at him!" Kiki squealed from behind her.

Katara's cheeks burned hot and she spun on her heels. "Shouldn't you be doing your chores?!"

The girls giggled again and scurried off, leaving a flustered Katara standing at the windowsill alone. After she was sure they had left the dormitory, she turned back around and finished watching Lee's impressive display.

She had never seen real firebending up close before. Bending was so rare nowadays, so seeing someone bend an element other than her own was always a treat. Most waterbenders left the poles to work at hospitals in the other nations, which is what she did when she was younger when she left with her mother to train in the Fire Nation palace. The only reason she went back to the Southern Water Tribe was because of the rebellion.

In their travels to find the cure for Gran Gran, they encountered plenty of benders, but they were few and far in between. Aang could airbend, which helped nurture his holier-than-thou attitude since there weren't many airbenders left, most who lived the Air Nomad lifestyle were nonbenders and remained acolytes in the temples. Toph was an earthbender but that bending specialty hadn't faded out as much as the others. After all, most of the benders Katara had met were earthbenders, so bending wasn't something she had never seen other than her own. It's just firebending was even rarer than all the other types. Most firebending families died out after the end of the massive war hundreds of years ago.

Really, the only people left who could firebend had been the Royal Family and their distant relatives.

She watched as her brother entered the courtyard with Lee and tossed him a training sword, then started instructing him on the fundamentals of swordsmanship. Prince Zuko had trained under the legendary Piandao, so knowledge of the swords was crucial. Though Sokka did not train under Piandao himself, the man who he studied under had learned from the Master before his abrupt retirement after the rebellion.

As the boys sparred, Katara decided that she needed to get some things done before they headed out, like gather provisions, find a carriage that would take them to Ba Sing Se, and get their corrected paperwork from Aang. She sighed at the thought of her ex and rubbed her forehead as she walked to the washrooms. Just considering speaking to him alone made her feel irritated, which did not contribute well to her already sour mood that morning.

She started the water and quickly started stripping down out of her sleeping clothes. They had no idea when they would have the chance to bathe again, so she quickly utilized the facilities before dressing in comfortable trousers and a matching tunic and heading down towards the common rooms near the training courtyard.

The girls were now lingering behind a pillar as Lee and Sokka finally finished up their spar, and Katara caught snippets of their conversation that caused the girls to start swooning.

"... got your head on a good set of shoulders."

"Thanks."

"I'd like to think that what we're doing is worthwhile."

"The only thing I have to lose is time," Lee stated as he handed the sword back to Sokka. "And we have plenty of that until we're leaving."

Sokka chuckled and patted Lee on the back, but the rest of his words were lost to Katara's ears as the girls sighed when Lee stretched his arms over his head, accentuating the lean muscles of his abdomen. Not that Katara was looking at him, either. She shuffled away and ducked into the kitchen, where Aang was lingering with an apple in his hand and a scroll in the other, reading the contents there.

The troubled look on his face didn't do well to quell her own anxieties.

Deciding she was past the point of pleasantries, Katara approached him slowly and outright asked, "Did you get the paperwork?"

Aang looked up from the scroll, stunned at her sudden appearance, and he nodded before handing her a docket that had been resting on the table. "Passports and tickets for all three of you, in the _correct_ ink color this time. And I arranged for Qing to chauffeur you to Full Moon Bay."

Katara groaned, "Qing? The old man who used to sell cabbages? Is the carriage going to smell like steamed dumplings the whole time?"

Aang shot her a wry smirk and replied, "You have a better solution? Just get your bags and get going. There have been reports that the patrols of the paths leading to Ba Sing Se are getting heavier because the Earth King is afraid of spies coming in from the Fire Nation and inciting a civil war. Having someone of clear Fire Nation heritage will make it difficult for you to get through without scrutiny."

Katara nodded and made to leave, but was stopped by Aang's hand on her shoulders. She looked over her shoulder and was struck by the troubled look on his face. "What is it?"

"Do you think that guy is really Prince Zuko?"

Katara sighed and looked towards the training courtyard, that was now empty. "He's the only option we have."

"You're not answering my question, Katara."

She dropped her gaze to the floor and replied, "What do you think?"

Aang's hand left her and he inhaled heavily. "I suppose he could pass as the prince. But amnesia? A facial scar? General Iroh has the reputation of being cunning and astute, and unless you give him undeniable proof he'll see right through you and send you all packing."

"What do we have to lose?" Katara whispered as she fought the frustrated tears that started burning in her eyes.

"Your grandma, for starters," Aang murmured as he walked around her so they could be face to face. He lifted Katara's chin with his hand and met her watery eyes. "Your dignity, possibly your access to the Earth Kingdom if he reports you."

Katara shook her head adamantly and stated, "He wouldn't do that-"

"You never know," he cut in softly, as if he was trying not to hurt her. Yeah, right. "This Lee guy is your only shot at getting the money to save your grandma. And you're deceiving him. Think about what you're doing, Katara."

She stepped away from him, already hurting from his biting words, and she scowled as she tucked the papers to her chest and muttered, "Desperate times call for desperate measures. Don't try to stop us."

As she pushed past him, she could hear his disappointed sigh. Not that she cared. They had to do what they had to do.

Right?

* * *

"And you don't know where that one is from, either?"

Lee looked down at the faint line that went from his navel across to his hip bone, and he shook his head. "No, that one was from one of the other kids at the orphanage. He thought I was going to kill him so he grabbed one of Jee's hooked swords out of storage and swiped at me."

Sokka stared at him like he grew another head. "You _didn't_ try to kill him, did you?"

"No."

"Okay, I just wanted to make sure that you weren't some psychopath."

Lee blinked slowly with a frown and went back to relaxing in the steaming water. Sokka was quick to warm up to him, his ease with words made conversation smooth, and his knact to be able to read Lee like an open book made him feel awfully vulnerable, but welcome and wanted at the same time.

If only Lee could crack him just as easily and get him to reveal why they were going through with this "mission."

"Well I have this one," Sokka cut into his thoughts as he held up his thumb to Lee's eyes, where a slight discoloration in the shape of a bean sat in the center. "I had a fishhook in my thumb, and I tried to get it out with another fishhook."

"Why on earth would you do that?"

Sokka shrugged and dunked his head under the water. After a long moment, he resurfaced and shook the water from his hair. "I was eleven. Cut me some slack."

"Sure, and when I was eleven, I-" Lee stopped to ponder if he would even remember what he did when he was eleven. In fact, he barely knew how old he was. He never had. "Sokka, how old was Prince Zuko?"

Sokka sank back against one of the rocks and frowned in thought. "I believe he was ten when the rebellion happened, because Katara was eight and she knew he was older than her. So he'd be twenty now. Why do you ask?"

Lee shrugged and rubbed his damp hair. "I'm not entirely sure how old I am."

"Did the orphanage not know?"

Lee shook his head. "I came in there with some borrowed clothes from some kid who died of sepsis, no hair, no name, and this-" He held up the tile he always kept around his neck. "The doctors could only figure out that I was well-nourished and was very healthy, despite the burns. Jee said they let kids leave the orphanage when they're eighteen, so I assumed that's how old I am."

Sokka looked at him, with narrowed eyes and heavy scrutiny, and commented, "You can't be only eighteen. I'm nineteen and you look older than me."

"Age doesn't mean much with appearance," Lee replied, his voice becoming solemn on its own. "I spent ten years in an orphanage. I probably look older than you because I had a stressful life."

"You're awfully self-reflective and pessimistic." Sokka stood and grabbed the towel from the rocks before sitting up on top of them, keeping his feet in the water. "I wasn't expecting that."

Lee gave him a humorless smirk. "I'm full of surprises."

"Yeah, like your sword skills," Sokka groaned. "How on earth did you beat me? I trained under a student of Master Piandao! He's the greatest swordsman who ever lived!"

As Sokka complained, Lee stood and grabbed his towel. He got out of the hot spring and dried himself off, then cut into Sokka's grumbling, "Maybe because I'm so naturally gifted."

The Water Tribesman cut himself off and glared at Lee. "I'm onto you, kid."

"If I'm Prince Zuko, then I'm older than you," Lee jabbed back as they started heading back to the dorms.

"You're still a kid, kid."

Their laughter continued until they were back in the dorms and getting dressed. As Sokka packed their stuff, Lee attempted to pull his hair into a wolf tail like the Water Tribesman often did. The forelocks fell out and framed his face, but otherwise it stayed up. He grinned into the mirror and then slid on his boots before heading out to the hallway.

Outside, Katara's and Sokka's backs were to him and they were speaking to each other in low tones, soft enough that even Lee's sensitive hearing couldn't pick up their conversation. There was a troubled look on Katara's face, but Sokka seemed to reassure her with a pat on her shoulder and some softer words. As Lee neared them, he was able to pick up the last bit of the conversation.

"... last option for us. We have to do it."

"Everything alright?"

The siblings both jumped and spun around to look up at Lee, who merely was waiting for their answer with his eyebrow arched. After a beat of silence, Sokka relaxed and patted Lee on the shoulder.

"Yeah, everything is fine," he claimed as he started leading Lee down the hall towards the exit of the temple. "You see, Aang arranged for someone to take us to Full Moon Bay, but Katara is worried it might be a bit uncomfortable for all of us."

Lee saw Katara glare at her brother from Lee's other side.

"How far of a ride will it be?" Lee found himself asking.

Katara sighed and opened the doors that led to the courtyard at the temple's entrance. "If we don't get stopped, two and a half days. Qing has pretty fast ostrich horses and there's a path that skirts past the Great Divide and will lead us straight to Full Moon Bay."

Lee's brow furrowed and he leaned towards Sokka and whispered, "Does she expect me to know where all of those places are?"

Sokka nodded and handed him his meager bag. "According to her, Prince Zuko did. So you'll need to know."

At the sight of the carriage pulling up to the entrance to the abbey, Lee groaned and buried his head into his bag. This was going to be a long trip.

* * *

The carriage ride was bumpy and uncomfortable. Lee was impatient enough as it was, but relying on two ostrich horses and an old man's carriage to bring them to Ba Sing Se was grating on his nerves. And unfortunately he couldn't complain. The first time he opened his mouth, Katara shot him a scathing look that chilled him to his bones. Despite her cool nature and her naturally calm aura, whenever it came to him she seemed to heat to a boiling point with irritation.

Sleeping was hard to come by in the cramped cabin, so Lee spent most of the night waking when he tried to shift or if there was a bump in the road, and there were so many that he felt as if he barely got a wink of rest.

Now, the morning sun was bright and shining through the old windows of the carriage, right into Lee's eyes. We would have leaned out of the stream, but Katara was sitting right next to him and any time he got to close she tensed up and snapped that he kept his hands to himself.

It was annoying as hell.

"Okay, so we should arrive at Full Moon Bay by tomorrow morning at this rate," Sokka commented as he looked at the map Aang gave them. "And the ferry ride across the lake shouldn't take more than a few hours. Then we'll be docked and ready to ride into Ba Sing Se to see Suki by dinnertime!"

"And Toph," Katara added, in which Sokka nodded his head and mumbled under his breath.

Lee's brow furrowed. "Who are Zuki and Tough? Why are we meeting them?"

Katara scoffed and rolled her eyes at him. "It's _Suki_ and _Toph_. Suki is General Iroh's bodyguard and Toph is his ward, and second undercover bodyguard whenever Suki has the night off or they're out in public."

Lee frowned and folded his arms across his chest. "But I thought we were going to see the General himself. Why are we going to see his ward?"

When she didn't reply and shot him a guilty look, Lee groaned, "Katara!"

While Katara rubbed the back of her head in shame, Sokka gave Lee a slightly guilty smile and replied, "Well, nobody gets near the General without convincing Toph that they are in fact the Prince first. She has a... certain ability that helps her weed out potential liars."

His stomach plummeted and suddenly the hope of finding answers in Ba Sing Se vanished. "Nobody said I had to _prove_ I was Prince Zuko!"

Katara placed her hand on his arm and gave him a soft squeeze, "Look-"

"No," he snapped as he scooted away as best as he could and glared at the siblings. "Show up? Yes. Look decent, possible. Be Princely? Doable. But _prove_ that I'm Prince Zuko? I can't do that! I don't know anything about -" He took a deep, calming breath and ran his hands through his hair, disrupting his wolf tail and causing it to fall back into his eyes. "You expect me to lie. I can't lie."

The siblings shared a glance - _enough_ with the secretive glances! - and Katara took his hand. A strange, tingling sensation crawled across the skin that touched hers. He met her eyes, oddly comforted by her gesture despite her fickle attitude towards him. She gave him a slight smile, a reassuring one, and she said, "You don't know it's a lie. What if it's true? There's just one more stop on the road to finding out who you are."

Lee sighed and fiddled with his pendant. "But I am not exactly Princely material. They'll know in an instant I'm not him."

"You'll never know until you try," Sokka remarked. Lee looked to him as he continued, "There's nothing left for you back in Caldera. Everything is in Ba Sing Se."

Lee tore his gaze away from them both and looked out the window. The passing trees were blooming; Spring was finally here. The season of the earthbenders, symbolizing renewal and rebirth. For what it was worth, Sokka was right. There was nothing left for him in the Fire Nation. Just vacant memories and bitter emptiness. If he was Zuko, then Iroh was the only family he had left.

"Remember what you said to me in the training courtyard the other morning?"

Lee didn't look at Sokka, but he nodded.

"The only thing you have to lose is time."

Lee hung his head and sighed. Sokka was right, and it irked him that the other man would quote him so easily in a completely different context. What they were doing, no matter the reasoning, it was worth a shot.

"Alright," he stated with such finality it even stunned him. When he turned back to the Water Tribesmen, they both seemed stunned, as well. "I'll do it. Teach me how to be a Prince."

For the next several hours, Sokka and Katara poured over everything there could be known about Prince Zuko, down to his preferences with his rice - fried with vegetables and tempura - and the type of tea he drank when he was snacking in the garden - jasmine or spiced if the weather was cooler. Sokka was incredibly surprised when he found Lee to be an avid learner, a fact that made Lee smugly grin and shrug with his single shoulder before poring over the documents again. He knew is incurable curiosity would help him one day.

"Now, your second cousin On Ji?"

"Lived north of Crescent Island."

"And great-uncles Xu and Bushi?"

"Jang Hui, with their other brother Dock."

Katara grinned and replied, "Very good. And your mother's father?"

"Hira'a," Lee replied instantly, then the strangest thought occurred to him. "His name was Magistrate Jinzuk and he had a beautiful garden." Softer, he thought of something else: "I was named after him."

He looked up to see Katara and Sokka exchanging baffled looks, as if they didn't expect him to answer like that. He raised his sole eyebrow, when Sokka glanced back at him, but no one said anything else. At least, not until the carriage slowed to a stop to the occupants' confusion.

"Hey!" Sokka yelled out the window to Qing, "Why did we stop?"

The older man climbed down from his seat and walked around to open the doors. "The road is blocked. I can't take you any further so either you need to walk or go back to Old Gaipan."

The three passengers stepped out of the carriage to see the entire path was blocked by a rock slide. Lee could see what he assumed was the Great Divide in the distance, but the entire road and surrounding areas were blocked by massive boulders and a deep, sprawling fissure.

"It's either the work of an earthquake or earthbenders," Qing stated as he fed one of his ostrich horses a head of cabbage. "Either way, I can't take you guys any further. You'll either have to walk or go back and find another route."

Immediately, Sokka sprung into action. "We aren't going back. Lee, get our bags and figure out a way for them to be carried. Katara, get my map. I think I can find a new route."

Katara and Lee met each other's eyes, nodded, then got to work. Lee went to unload their bags from the back of the carriage. Luckily, they each only had one bag each and there was only one smaller bag for their food. With the small amount of things in Lee's bag, he put the food in his bag and strapped it to his back. Katara's bag was the heaviest, but not by much, so he held that in his right arm while Katara dug through Sokka's to get the map.

"Here!" she exclaimed as she pulled it out with a flourish and handed it to her brother.

Sokka knelt down and scanned the map, looking for possible routes that avoided the rock slide. It took a while, full of a litany of curses in his native language and mumbles in others, but after what felt like a whole day of waiting, Sokka grabbed a stick of charcoal and drew a path that went northeast right towards something labeled the Serpent's Pass.

"Okay, Qing, you can go back to Yu Dao," Sokka commented as he stood and rolled the map back up. "We'll be walking from here."

He handed Qing a gold piece for his troubles and then started walking towards the rubble that had been blocking their path. Katara followed right after him and Lee gave Qing a short bow and murmur of gratitude as he followed behind the siblings. The sound of the ostrich horses neighing and trotting back to the west faded as they pushed through the trees and past the rubble.

Lee's eyes caught on some discoloration on the rocks and stalled. At further inspection, they appeared to be fresh scorch marks, likely from a fire. Or firebender.

This may not have been the work of an earthquake...

"Lee! Hurry up!"

He frowned at the marks but didn't dwell on them. It's not like anyone would be after them specifically... at least he hoped not. After he caught back up with Sokka and Katara, Sokka unrolled his map and assessed the area around them.

"Okay, so the plan is for us to go a little north towards the edge of the lake and then cut across eastwards towardsthe Serpent's Pass," he explained. "Full Moon Bay is on the Eastern Lake, but it looks like the destruction goes almost the entire way. If we just cut through the Serpent's Pass, we'll get to Ba Sing Se in no time."

"A little behind schedule, but that means we can get into the finer details of Prince Zuko's life that Lee will need to know," Katara remarked, causing Sokka to nod with approval. Lee followed close behind, doing his best to ignore the pinch in his shoulders that told him someone was watching them. He would glance behind them every once in a while, searching the woods or the fields for movement other than their own, but nothing would catch his eye. Once, he thought he saw the glint of metal in the sunlight, but after he blinked it went away.

It was making him anxious.

"Alright," Katara announced as they finished climbing up a small cliff. "Now, Lee: Prince Zuko was the first in line for the throne. His father, Ozai, was the Fire Lord. I'm sure you knew that."

Lee nodded. "General Iroh was the first born of Fire Lord Azulon and Lady Ilah. Iroh's son, my cousin, Lu Ten, died at the age of sixteen in a boating accident near Ember Island."

Katara encouraged him with her own nod.

"Iroh was a widower so he decided to step down from the line of succession, giving Ozai the first heir's placement," Lee continued. His brow furrowed and he added, "Azulon died shortly after of a bleeding cough."

He glanced up to see something flash in Katara's eyes, but he made no mention of it. After all, he was reciting something that could have easily come out of a history book. It's not like his knowledge was secretive and unknown to the general public.

"Alright, break in lessons," Sokka cut in from ahead. Both Lee and Katara looked to where he had stopped on the top of a hill as he said, "We're here. And it looks like we might have a problem."

As Lee and Katara reached his side, they could see exactly what he had been talking about: the Serpent's Pass was a sliver of land that stretched through the sky from the depths of the lake. It looked treacherous, with narrow paths barely etched into the side of the slim mountain. It looked as if the worn land hadn't been traversed in ages, which frightened Lee more than he would care to admit. After all, an unbeaten path meant no travelers, and there would be a reason for that.

"Well, it's this or skirting around the entire Eastern Lake and that could take a whole day," Sokka remarked as he tugged on his wolf tail.

"It might not be safe," Katara stated towards him. "It might be smarter to take the long way to Full Moon Bay."

Sokka rounded on his sister and raised his eyebrows as he said, "And waste more time? We're already behind schedule by walking all this way. We told Suki we would arrive before the beginning of the wet season, which starts in less than a week. If we walk all the way to Full Moon Bay, that will knock us back another three days. Let's just camp here for the night and cross the pass tomorrow. That should get us into Ba Sing Se by sundown tomorrow."

Katara didn't seem to drop her fight and quickly made to set up a makeshift camp, stomping around and snapping over her shoulder at Sokka as she did it. Lee set out to help her - and get away from her, truthfully - by gathering dry wood for a fire. As the siblings bickered behind him, he ventured into the woods and began collecting small sticks and logs. As he did, he heard the distinct sound of a twig snapping deeper in the woods. His head shot up and he stared ahead towards where the noise had come from, but there was no visible movement in the low light of dusk.

His frown actually hurt his jaw as it pulled down and he tucked the wood under his arm before heading back to the camp. One last lingering look towards the darkness of the woods was all he could do.

"Will that be enough to last us through the night?" Katara asked as she pulled out a blanket from her pack.

Lee realized he didn't have one on him. "I can go get more if you'd like."

Katara pinched her lips together in thought before shaking her head. "We should be fine. The nights in the Earth Kingdom get cold, but it's nothing compared to the South Pole, and spring is typically really mild so we could probably go without a raging fire."

With that, the travelers ate some of their rations and settled into sleep. Sokka was the first one out, snoring like crazy, followed shortly by Katara, who mumbled incoherently in her sleep. Lee stayed up, unable to find sleep like them, and kept his eyes on the woods until the sun rose the next morning.

* * *

When Katara awoke, she did not expect to see Lee already awake. She supposed he had the typical firebender habit of rising early, but the dark circles under his good eye told her that he may not have slept as much as she.

"How long have you been up?"

His eyes did not move from where they were planted on the woods when he replied hoarsely, "Been up all night."

Katara felt herself frown at his lack of self-care and she sat up, ready to chastise him, but Sokka woke with a loud yawn and smack of his lips. "Morning, guys. Breakfast?"

She rolled her eyes and sat up, ignoring the way Lee's eyes narrowed at the woods before he finally broke them away and stood. As he brushed himself off and made to stomp out the last smolders of the fire, Katara dug into their provisions and tossed Sokka and apple and meat bun before snagging one for herself. Lee could figure out what he wanted when he was done sulking.

The camp was soon packed up and their bags strapped to their backs before the sun completely crested over the mountain range in the east. They set out towards the Serpent's Pass, pointedly ignoring the worn inscription on the archway that told them to abandon hope.

Hope was what they needed the most right now.

Soon, they were hiking up the narrow trail that was carved out of the equally-narrow mountain range. Katara figured that once, long ago, an earthbender must have created the pass as a way to create a shorter path across the lake. After all, there were no signs of tectonic change to the mountains except where loose boulders had fallen and crashed into the path.

After an hour of walking, Sokka stopped and turned towards Lee and Katara, a frustrated and stricken look on his face. "Problem."

"What now?" Lee complained as he adjusted his bag. Katara looked over Sokka's shoulders to see the mountain pass had dipped below the water line, prohibiting any further traveling.

Only, that wasn't the case with a master waterbender in their midst.

Quickly, Katara started parting the water and ordered the two boys to follow her. They started walking through the muddy path, moving further and further beneath the waters with nothing but Katara's bending preventing them from drowning. As they kept moving, Katara noticed a hazy form in front of them, a dark and warbled thing, and she feared they might have to hightail it back the other way and figure out a new way across. But as they got closer, it took shape and became completely clear as it entered their air bubble.

A skeleton.

A huge one, in fact. Bigger than anything she had ever seen. All they could see in the area that Katara bent away was what appeared to be a rib, but there was no mistaking it. It was something very large, and very dead.

"I certainly hope there isn't a living one like this in the water," Sokka groaned as he touched the jutting bone. "Katara bend out the area a little more."

Katara did what he asked and focused on expanding the radius of the air bubble. It was a bit of a struggle, but she managed to get enough pushed away to reveal the skull. As she felt her arms quake with the pressure, Sokka approached it and rubbed his thumb around the eye socket.

"Well, now I can see why they named this the Serpent's Pass," he chuckled, mostly to himself, and he jogged back to his sister's side. "Okay, you can let up a bit. Let's get out of here."

As Katara shrank their space again, she could feel Lee's piercing gaze on her. If she wasn't so focused on making sure the water didn't touch them, she would have glared at him. Let him stare at her in awe. See her prowess as a bender, know that she could level him if she wanted.

A while later, they emerged from the water and were able to continue up the mountains. They stopped for some food when the sun was directly overhead, and Katara began quizzing Lee on his knowledge of Prince Zuko's life. When they were done, and she was sufficiently satisfied with Lee's progress, they started hiking again. It wasn't until they had reached the first peak of the second mountain range when she finally noticed Lee's uneasiness and constant wandering eyes.

"You alright?"

His gaze flitted to her and he nodded erratically before looking back out towards the water.

Katara stopped and he nearly ran into her. When he blinked a few times and looked down at her, she frowned. "Something's up. What's going on?"

Lee's eyes flickered out towards the land that bordered the lake and he frowned. "I'm not sure. I think someone is following us. Or watching us. Either way-"

Out of nowhere, the sounds of explosions filled the air and something crashed against the mountain peak above them. Both Lee and Katara looked up to see an explosion and boulders cascading down towards them.

"Watch out!"

Katara felt Lee's body slam into hers and they crashed onto the ground, narrowly avoiding getting crushed underneath the rocks. Another explosion rocked the air and hit the rocks beneath them, causing the ground to crumble. Katara met Lee's panicked gaze as he scrambled to his feet and pulled her up with him.

"Go!"

 _"Katara!"_

She spun on her feet and ran towards Sokka, who was stumbling against the unsteady ground and extending his arm to her. She grasped him and they ran as fast as they could. There wasn't much of the pass left for them to cross, and with the fire of the explosions licking at their heels they soon reached the end of the Serpent's Pass with minimal injury. Behind them, Lee was catching up after bending a few of the explosions away.

There was an exhaustion clear on his soot-covered face, and she was sure he was already about to pass out when he reached their side.

"We gotta hide," he panted.

"Where?" Sokka exclaimed as he looked around. "All that's here is woods! If whoever was shooting stuff at us could see us in those mountains, he will definitely be able to see us in the trees."

"What other option do we have?" Katara debated. Both boys looked to her and she sighed, "Ba Sing Se is still another few hours of walking away. This guy isn't going to let up, and we have to get Lee safely there if we want to see this through with General Iroh. For now, we keep moving but with the trees so it's harder to see us."

There was a stern set to Sokka's jaw, but he nodded and they started to run towards the thicker area of trees. Katara noticed out of the corner of her eye that Lee was limping, but that was something she would have to take care of later. They needed to get somewhere safe and quick, but that was going to almost be impossible while being tracked by a person intent on killing them.

The noise that came before the explosion filled her ears and they were knocked off of their feet when the ground beneath them exploded. Her head spun and all she could hear was ringing, but she could focus on the golden stare of Lee as he scrambled to his feet and ran to her. Blood was dripping down his face from his hairline, and the frantic look in his eyes told her that she wasn't faring much better. He tucked his hands under her armpits and hoisted her to her feet, his shouts lost to the ringing, and she struggled to follow him as he sprinted ahead.

Once the ringing died down, Katara could hear Lee yelling to Sokka, who she just realized was right next to her and running at her pace.

"...going!"

" _No!_ We're not leaving without you!"

Lee turned on his heels and squared up to the Water Tribe siblings, a fierce look in his light eyes and Katara had to convince herself that the dizziness she was feeling was from the explosion. "I can bend his explosions away. I'll protect you both until we can shake him off or get into Ba Sing Se. Either way, I have to do this."

Without giving room for either Katara or Sokka to argue, Lee led them through the woods northward towards the walls of Ba Sing Se. Another sound of explosions filled the trees and Katara braced herself for the imminent attack, but the heat did not come. She looked up to see Lee protecting them with another practiced wave of his arms.

He looked over his shoulder at her, his eyes hard and determined as he shouted, _"Run!"_

She stumbled as she followed Sokka and kept her eyes on Lee as he trailed behind her. Right as they reached a break in the trees near a towering cliff, their eyes met as another sound of explosions filled the trees, the fear clear in Lee's eyes as he looked at her and prepared to block the attack.

Time slowed as she watched Lee spin on his heels and attempt to redirect another blast. He was off-centered, barely balanced on one foot as he began bending the explosion away, so as soon as it exploded he was launched into the air.

 _"Lee!"_

Like lightning, Lee was thrown through the air and slammed into the cliffside with a resounding crack. Her heart stopped when he crumbled to the ground and remained motionless. Katara made to run to him, but Sokka tugged on her arm and dragged her away to somewhere they could hide.

Another explosion rang through the trees, but this time where they had been just moments before. She fought the tears when they stopped near a larger tree that had a trunk wide enough to hide both of them. Instead, Sokka gripped her shoulders and held her still as she kept looking at Lee's still body.

"Sokka, I have to help him!" she cried as she struggled against his iron-like grip.

"That guy is still out there!" he snapped back. In that exact moment, there was motion from the tree line and Katara froze at the sight of a lumbering man emerging from the shadows of the woods. His head was completely shaven, save for the full beard he sported. His eyes scanned the clearing, and Katara could see how sharp and dark they were. When he looked in their direction, she noticed the third eye tattooed on his forehead.

Her heart sank and she struggled against Sokka's grip again. "He's going to kill Lee! We have to help him!"

"How on earth do we defeat a guy who blows things up with his mind?!" Sokka hissed back. "He's going to see us and we're going to die!"

"I don't care! We're supposed to keep him safe, remember?!"

Sokka's eyes were hard, but they weren't on her. They were still on the man that was stomping towards Lee's prone body. Katara followed his gaze and realized that the man had likely seen them, but did nothing.

He had an intentional target. One that he was currently towering over and leaning down to pick up off the ground.

"Fine," Sokka sighed as he drew his sword and his boomerang. He looked to where the man was still moving and a thoughtful frown crossed his face. "Dad told me about a guy like him. Used combustion to make laser-focused attacks. He had been notorious during the war back when Dad was first starting out... If he gets hit on his forehead, he'll get stunned and we might be able to flee without him finding us. Distract him for a minute and then I'll come in so you can get Lee somewhere safe."

Katara nodded quickly and uncorked her waterskin. With the finesse of a master waterbender, Katara sprung out and sprinted towards the man and sent a barrage of ice daggers in his direction. Clearly sensing her approach, he turned and deflected them off of his metal arm. His eyes glinted at her, but he did not stop. His hand closed around Lee's throat and he lifted him into the air, Lee's body hanging limply from his strong grip.

Blood dripped from his head down onto the man's hand and the ground.

Katara continued her attack and pulled water from the nearby trees, shouting with ire as she gathered a wave of water and sent it towards him. The man spun around and his eyes widened as the water crashed into him and caused him to let go of Lee. Katara used another wave to cushion his fall and pull him to safety at her side, then took the water and enclosed the man in a thick orb of ice.

One that was quickly melting under his firebending.

As Katara eased Lee to the ground, Sokka sprung out of the trees right as the ice exploded and the man squared himself back towards his prey. The master tactician that was her brother took his boomerang and launched it at the man, completely intent on stunning him long enough to deliver a final blow.

The man inhaled heavily right in that moment and Katara braced herself for the explosion that was bound to hit her dead on. She curled her body around Lee's and slid her eyes shut. But right as he was about to launch his attack, the boomerang hit him square in the forehead, immediately causing him to stumble back. With a couple of flares and sparks, the explosion blew up right in his face. As the smoke from the explosion filled the clearing, Katara ducked away from the sight and quickly went to help Lee.

His blood was pooling in the dry dirt and panic seized in her heart. Quickly, Katara pulled off her dress, leaving her in just her pants and cropped undershirt, and she balled it up under his head. She knelt down and lifted his head so it laid in her lap with her dress acting as a bandage and pillow, then cupped his head in her hand as the other called more water to her palm. The blood from his wound was seeping through her fingertips and soaking all the way through the dress already, causing the panic to increase tenfold. As the glow from her healing engulfed his head, Katara tugged her lip between her teeth and prayed. She had to fix him. She had to make sure he didn't die, not when they were this close.

"Come on, Lee," she muttered as her water sealed the wound and healed the crack in his skull, slowly but thoroughly. She blinked away the tears that started building in her eyes. "Wake up, you idiot. You shouldn't have done that..."

Lee groaned and his head rolled in her lap. "... not now, 'Zula..."

Katara's heart shot up into her throat and her fingers flexed against his hair. "What did you say?"

"Azula, leave me alone," was his mumbled reply. Katara felt her fingers quake even more as she fought to keep the water steady and finish its work. There was no way... She must have heard him wrong... He couldn't possibly know who Princess Azula was. Katara had seen the curriculum books for the school children when she helped in the hospital: there was no mention of the former Royal Family in the newer additions. Lee couldn't have possibly learned about her there. And mostly any information about the Royal Family was whispered among friends, of the late Fire Lord Ozai and his living brother General Iroh.

And the Prince that everyone had been looking for.

The Prince that would know who Princess Azula was.

The Prince that possibly was laying in her lap right this second.

Her tears fell from her astonished eyes and crashed against the ruined skin of his face. That couldn't be it. No, Lee couldn't be...

His eyes pinched together before opening in a pained squint, then he looked up at her crying eyes and frowned.

"What happened?"

Katara furiously shook her head and pushed his bangs away from his forehead. "You got hurt. I was scared."

He managed a lazy smirk and his eyes slid shut again when he replied hoarsely, "You were worried about me? That's a first."

Immediately, her suspicions and anxieties were quelled and she swatted him on the side of the head with one hand while the other scrubbed the tears away from her face. "Jackass."

Sokka came running back, a deep frown on his face, and Katara saw him holding the remnants of what looked like a metal arm in his hands. The grim look in his eyes told her that he may have brought back the only piece that wasn't covered in bodily fluids. "Looks like our pursuer is no longer going to be a problem."

Katara stared at the arm as Sokka dropped it to the ground at his feet, her own frown deepening. Why on earth would someone who was bending what she could only describe as explosions come after them with murderous intent? The one glance Katara had in the man's eyes told her that he was Fire Nation, and he was out for blood. Specifically, Lee's.

She met Sokka's eyes and he was thinking the same thing as her: someone was trying to stop them from meeting with Iroh.

Well, if the person wanting to stop them found out that they're man was killed, by the time they sent someone else Katara, Sokka, and Lee would be safe behind the walls of Ba Sing Se.

She looked down to Lee, only to see he was fully conscious and was staring intently at the bare skin of her torso. And the long, jagged scar at her waist that stretched all the way to her naval. She flushed and wished she hadn't hastily shed her dress to use as a bandage, because now Lee was seeing _her_ scar that she always tried so desperately to hide.

The one she received when she saved the Prince's life at the risk of her own.

"That Combustion Man sure had some sort of vendetta," Sokka muttered as he stared over at the debris that was once their pursuer. "And I doubt he's the last of them. We need to get moving before we get caught again."

Both Katara and Lee were shaken out of their respective trances and looked up at Sokka.

"Can you walk, Lee?"

The firebender's eyes darted back to Katara's scar, a furrow forming in his brow, and he nodded before rolling out of her lap and struggling to stand. Katara looked down at her lap and saw the blood that had stained her wadded up dress and the front of her pants, and she sighed before standing herself.

With a wave of her arms, more water was pulled out of the nearby trees and she swept it through her dirtied clothing. Once Lee had completely straightened up, she moved the water to his head and face - where most of his blood had accumulated - and over his shirt to pull out the blood that had soaked through there, as well.

She discarded the soiled water and sighed when she looked at Lee's appearance. Although she had mended the clothing while they were on the boat ride from the Fire Nation, it was now even more ratty and torn in new places from their recent fight. Her clothes were also pretty ripped up since the battle, and she was hellbent on not wearing a dress that had been soaked through with Lee's blood. Not if she could help it.

"We'll need to go shopping as soon as we get there," she remarked, causing Sokka to brighten with excitement and Lee to frown in confusion. She leveled her gaze on him and she added, "You can't very well go see General Iroh dressed like _that._ "

* * *

 _tbc._


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA.**_

 _ **A/N**_ _so I'm going to be honest and say I took some time off of this story because I felt like no one was actually reading it... Then I decided IDGAF and hopped back on the wagon. It took some time and rereading, but I finished the rest of the story and it's just queued to be posted. Thanks for sticking around if you have been waiting for me!_

* * *

 _ **Chapter Four**_

* * *

"Ah, yes. I remember it so well. Great Uncle Yao was from Haman Village, and Cousins Lan and Ling were from Shu Jing..."

The cherry blossoms bloomed heavy this year, their petals coating the ground like a thick pink blanket. The smell of ginseng tea wafted through the apartment, mingling with the natural smells of the spring, and a cool breeze blew through the open windows.

The apartment's owner took a deep breath and dropped his eyes to the windowsill where his scarred hands rested. Behind him, a young gentleman with his dark brown hair brushed back to a braid was listing off family members. He glanced over his shoulder and frowned at the man's dark hazel eyes. They were not his nephew's.

"And every spring-"

"We would go to Ember Island and stay at the beach house for the Fire Lily Festival," he cut in as he turned his head back towards the sprawling city in front of him. "Haven't you anything better to do?"

He could hear his attendant and ward shuffle the young man out, no less than literally kicking the man in the butt as she shut the door behind him, and stroll back into the sitting room. "I must be losing my edge."

The man sighed and glanced at her unseeing eyes before slowly walking towards the table where his teapot and cup had been waiting. As he took a seat, he looked at the last portrait that was commissioned of his son, and then the last one of his nephew. His sigh was more pained this time.

"I'm surprised he fooled me well enough, but next time I will make sure to ask questions _only_ the Prince-"

"No," he stated softly, almost too quiet for normal ears. But she could hear him. Where she could not see, she could hear. "My heart cannot take it anymore. I will see no more people claiming to be Prince Zuko."

"General Iroh, are you sure?"

Iroh took the painting of Zuko in his hands and felt the sting of tears fill his eyes. With a resolute sigh, he placed the picture back down on his table. Face down. "Yes, Toph. I am sure. Tell Suki I will not be accepting anyone else."

"Of course, sir."

* * *

 _An alarm rang through the palace. Katara jolted awake - jarred from the sound - and she jumped out of bed to find her mother. Kya was standing in the doorway, looking into the hallway with an alarmed expression on her face as guards ran past the room and headed back into the palace proper._

 _"Mama," Katara asked as she tugged on the skirt of Kya's nightgown. "What's going on?"_

 _Kya's eyes snapped to her daughter, wide and wild with fear, and she knelt down so they were face to face. "Katara, honey, there's someone attacking the palace. We need to evacuate."_

 _The words went straight over her head, almost muffled in her ears under the sound of the racing footsteps outside and the thrumming of her pulse. She swallowed thickly against the dryness in her throat, tasting fear and smoke. She looked out to the hallway to see a slight haze coating everything, like something was burning._

 _Most likely the palace itself._

 _"We need to get somewhere safe," Kya reminded her._

 _Immediately, Katara thought of the family that owned this place and she took a step back. "What about the prince and princess?"_

 _Kya's stricken frown was clear, but she seemed to try to keep her voice level and calm. "Prince Zuko and Princess Azula have many guards to protect them. They will be safe until the palace is once again secure. Until then, you and I need to get to the docks so we can go back home."_

 _Something wasn't adding up. If everything was going to be safe, why were they going to the docks to go back to the Southern Water Tribe? She needed to finish her training underneath the palace healers, not go back! And what of the prince? He was reckless and brash. If someone was attacking the palace, that stupid head would want to go headfirst into a battle to protect his family._

 _She had to go make sure he was okay._

 _Without another word, Katara grabbed the waterskin on the table next to the door and pushed past her mother. Kya's alarmed calls for her were lost on deaf ears and she quickly rounded the corner that led to the servant passages. She wasn't technically a servant, but she was allowed to use the passages in order to get back to their apartment after her lessons. Right now, they were the shortest route to where the prince should be and she had to make sure he was okay._

 _After all, they were sort of friends, right?_

 _As she got higher and higher through the tunnels, the suffocating smoke grew thicker and thicker and she could feel the soot in the air as it smudged her cheeks and stuck to her hair. She rounded a corner, hearing shouts from the other side of the walls, and she swallowed when she recognized the sound of Princess Ursa screaming her daughter's name with such agony that it could only mean heartbreak._

 _The door that led to Prince Zuko's room was ahead and warm to the touch, but not too hot. She pushed it open just in time to see Prince Zuko darting into the room, his long black hair loose and falling into his golden eyes. He ran straight to his bedside table and picked up his dagger, the one he always practiced with when he wasn't in his lessons. He shoved it in his pocket and General Iroh came in right after him._

 _"Zuko! We must get out now!"_

 _The prince spun around right as the General spoke and pulled some sort of chain out of his pocket before putting it around his neck. The sounds of approaching footsteps and shouts reached the room and Prince Zuko froze in his spot, his eyes widening so much that they looked like glowing gold suns._

 _Katara shoved the door open entirely, which had been disguised as a tapestry from the other side. She shouted as resolutely as she could to them, "Here! Use the servant's tunnels!"_

 _As General Iroh and Prince Zuko stared in shock at her, she huffed and pushed her braid over her shoulder, striding over to them. She helped Iroh bring Zuko to the exit, all while looking over her shoulders towards the door she hoped Iroh had locked._

 _"Thank you so much, miss," Iroh said in the most genuine tone she had ever heard from a royal._

 _Not wanting to waste any time, she just shook her head and pushed them inside the hidden tunnel. "Just go!"  
_

 _As they both went inside, Katara made to close the door but Prince Zuko suddenly came back. "My dagger!"_

 _The sounds of shouting and screams became louder, chilling her to the bones. The smoke was starting to get suffocating here. As best as she could, Katara shook her head and shoved him back in. "There's no time! Go!"_

 _Though Zuko's protesting shouts echoed down the passage, Katara moved the door and tapestry back into place, seamlessly blending back into the wall, and she rushed over to grab the dagger that Zuko had dropped on the ground. She shoved it into her waistband, completely intent on giving it back to him when she saw him again - because she_ would _\- and she turned to find a place to hide until the shouts disappeared._

 _But her luck was not on her side. The door to the hallway burst open and two men dressed in black armor came rushing in, their eyes bleeding with murder, and she took a scared step back.  
_

 _"Where are they?!" one shouted as he pointed a sword to her face._

 _"I-I don't know," she mumbled as she took another step back. Her hips banged against the corner of Zuko's bed._

 _The second man scowled at her and snatched her braid with his grubby hands. "Stop lying, you little bitch. Where are Prince Zuko and General Iroh?!"_

 _Tears sprang out of her eyes and she sobbed, "I don't know! They weren't here when I came to hide!"_

 _The second man cursed some more under his breath before looking to the first man. "Zhao said no survivors."_

 _The first man didn't hesitate to swing his sword. A sudden, sharp pain erupted in her side and Katara was certain in that moment she was going to die. The second man let go of her hair, letting her crumple to the ground as she cried and screamed in pain as her blood seeped through her fingertips and spilled onto the floor._

 _"Just leave her," the first man said without remorse. "She'll die soon enough."_

Katara's eyes shot open and she tried not to make her panic visible to her car mates. Sokka was looking out the window as the farmlands were passed and Lee was laying down on the opposite seat, sleeping off the exhaustion from the fight with that crazed combustion dude. Katara's heart rate started to slow, the memory of that fateful night fading back into the recesses of her mind.

With a sigh, she stood, told Sokka she was going to get some fresh air, and she went out to the hall. One of the attendants was standing at the end of the hall, monitoring all of the sleeping guests, and she made a beeline to him.

"Master Katara," he greeted with a smile and a bow. "I'm surprised to see you awake."

Cutting to the point, Katara said, "Can I get a message sent out as soon as we get to the inner wall?"

* * *

After getting off the train, Lee was thankful that their papers were accurate this time and they wouldn't be subject to any heavy scrutiny by the robed men at the gates of the train station. After all, the looks they received because of their dirty clothes and dirt-smudged faces, not because he was clearly Fire Nation or that they were using counterfeit paperwork.

Dressed in Sokka's overshirt in lieu of her battered dress, Katara returned from the courier station and grinned at her companions. "Thanks to the message I sent while we were on the train, Toph knows we're here. There should be a carriage here any second to bring us up to the gates through the Middle and Upper Rings to meet her at her condo."

"But first," Sokka interjected as he clasped Lee on his shoulder, "we all need new clothes if we're going to meet with her and my lovely Suki."

Lee felt his face heat under the analytic gaze Katara zeroed on him; eyes dragging up and down his body like he was on some sort of display.

"We won't be able to find anything suitable down here," she declared with a disappointed pout. "I'd have to say we would need to go to a shop in the Upper Ring, one that sells clothes for all of the nations. I know of one around the corner from Toph's condo so that should be ideal."

Before they could really elaborate or explore, a carriage pulled up to them and the driver said that Lady Beifong had sent him. Sokka and Katara exchanged grins at her speedy response and they quickly hauled their stuff into the carriage. Lee followed their lead, and soon they were riding through the streets of the Lower Ring on their way to the center of Ba Sing Se.

Despite what Lee had heard through the grapevine, the streets were not coated with slurry of human waste and decay. Yes, the homes were more modest and run down than he had seen in places like Yu Dao or the noble district of Caldera, but they weren't as decrepit as the red lights or near the ruins of the old fire temples. And sure, it was a little crowded and the people seemed a little more waiflike than he'd care to see, but he had to remember that most of the Earth Kingdom's citizens lived here now instead of in dozens of towns across the continent. In fact, more than half of the entire population of the Earth Kingdom lived within these walls. The rest lived in Omashu and Yu Dao and a few old settlements on the coasts. Katara was sure to remind him that in the centuries since the United Republic's lands returned to the Earth Kingdom, many people decided to move to the outlying islands that belonged to no country.

Better live without the thumbs of tyrants, she claimed.

Apparently, whoever didn't moved to Ba Sing Se and most of them stayed in the Lower Ring. And it showed when they passed through the gates to the Middle Ring, where the houses were a little more spaced out and much cleaner, with straight foundations and level roofs instead of crooked and broken like in the Lower Ring. The people up here dressed nicer, as well. Much nicer than he saw some people dress even in Caldera. Although, Caldera had declined in the past years and anyone who would even live in the Middle Ring here were the type who moved to Ember Island.

Their papers were flashed at the gates to the Upper Ring, and suddenly Lee was surrounded by splendor he could only dream of. The houses were large and spotless, with perfectly manicured lawns that were fenced off from the even streets. More homes were clustered together closer to the shops and main street, but they were still more roomy than any home he had seen back in the Fire Nation, minus the abandoned mansions outside of the palace. The carriage brought them to the a shopping district, where store after store of different wares stretched on for what looked like miles. Sokka tipped their driver and told him to wait, and soon Lee was tugged out of his gaping and dragged into a store where he would be fitted for some new clothes.

"Wait- Sokka!"

The Water Tribesman ignored his protests and ushered him towards the fitting rooms, telling him to stay put until he came back with appropriate attire.

Before Lee could properly sulk at the thought of basically being handled, Sokka came back with his arms full of clothes. He had picked out four separate outfits for him to try on - two of the same variety in different colors - and Lee followed his orders as best as he could. He changed into one outfit - a dark green tunic with a cream colored sash -and it was vetoed immediately after he stepped out of the dressing room. Then he tried on a second - a similar brown and moss color tunic with a green sash - that was met with a dissatisfied hum, and the third - blue with white - was rejected with a disappointed sigh. The last outfit - a comfortable long-sleeved tunic and vest combination in the rich colors of the Fire Nation - was slid on, fitting him like a glove, and he stepped out of the dressing room to meet Sokka's pleased grin.

"Perfect," Sokka exclaimed as he tucked the clothes he was going to buy for himself and Katara under his arm. "Now all we need to do is wash your hair and pull it up, and you'll look just like a prince."

Without letting Lee speak, Sokka tugged him to the counter and paid for their clothes, then brought them both to the adjourning bathhouse. There were comments about the dirt and blood from their fight with the Combustion Man, Sokka's new nickname for their dead nemesis, and both of the boys were quick to wash up and get rid of all of the grime from their travels.

Neither mentioned how the other looked completely uneasy at the thought of how close Lee had come to dying at the hands of that man.

As they dried off and pulled on their new clothes, Sokka commented, "You clean up good, Lee,"

Lee looked down at himself, at the red and gold tunic and black boots, and he smiled. "I guess I do, huh?"

Sokka smacked him on the back and ruffled Lee's wet hair with a towel. "Come on, Princely boy. It's time to go find your family."

* * *

Katara was certain her heart was about to bruise the inside of her ribcage at the rate it was beating. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened at the sight of Lee crossing the street with Sokka. No longer the homeless orphan in hand-me-downs, but a regal Prince waiting to meet his long-lost Uncle. His hair was washed - likely done in the bath house next to the store - and hanging limply in front of his clean-shaven face. His golden eyes were bright, accented by the colors of his Fire Nation clothes, and staring right at her. She had to swallow away the anxiety that swelled in her throat and fought the smile that tweaked at the corner of her lips at the sight of him.

After her emotional display when she thought Lee was dead, she tried to not seem so hostile. At least enough to not give him whiplash.

"Alright! We are ready to go meet Suki and Toph!" Sokka declared with a triumphant grin when he reached her side.

Katara tore her gaze away from Lee, who now seemed occupied with the sleeves of his tunic, and back to her brother. "Clothes?"

Sokka nodded as he handed her the bag of clothes. "Hurry, please."

Katara took that as her cue and headed over to the bath house without any objection. She looked over her shoulder to see Lee was watching her again, all the way until she passed through the threshold of the bath house. Though she wanted to take her time, she knew Toph and Suki were expecting them, so she lathered up and rinsed herself off with a quick swirl of water, then tugged on her new dress and leggings before pulling all of the water out of her hair and letting it fall into soft waves. As she exited, she saw the boys were still waiting for her by the carriage, and Sokka was gesturing wildly to Lee as he clearly recounted the story of when they met a polar bear dog in the North Pole.

"Okay, I'm finished," she declared as she crossed the street and met the boys. "Anything else?"

Sokka nodded in approval at her clean appearance. He then looked at Lee for a second before digging into his pocket and procuring a leather tie for Lee's hair. "Some last minute quizzing and polishing and we should be good!"

The three companions went back to their carriage and climbed in, and Sokka ordered Lee to sit in front of him on the floor so he could work on pulling the orphan's hair up. As he did, Katara sat across from them and folded her arms. She ignored the way Lee's golden eyes seemed to glow in the low light of the carriage car and swallowed thickly.

"Alright, how confident are you in answering any question about Prince Zuko thrown at you?"

Lee frowned and winced as Sokka started pulling his hair back. "Well, five days ago I didn't have any past at all and now I'm trying to remember an entire lifetime. You tell me."

Katara smiled and replied, "That's why you've got us. Now where was Uncle Yao from?"

Lee furrowed his brow and then, as if it suddenly struck him, he replied, "Haman Village?"

"Very good!" she exclaimed with a smile, her heart warm at the bright expression on his face.

Sokka finished up tying Lee's hair into a half-topknot when he sighed and patted the other man on the shoulders. "Look, you have to think hard about this. Iroh will not just see anyone. Toph and Suki are doing us a favor by meeting you, and we owe them big time. You really have to convince them because they are the last true obstacle from you meeting Iroh."

Lee turned around in his seat and frowned up at the Water Tribesman. "Are you sure this will work?"

"Positive."

Katara smiled at the hopeful look in Lee's eyes. It was a wonder someone who had next to nothing could soon be given everything he could ask for in the world. But only if he convinces the best lie detector in the world that he was Prince Zuko.

Their carriage pulled up to a modest home, two storied and white with green trim that matched the manicured grass of the fenced yard. Sokka stepped out first, then Lee followed him. To her surprise, Lee extended his hand to her to help her. She was embarrassed to feel her cheeks warm at the genuine look in his eyes as she took his hand and stepped down from the carriage.

She tried not to think too much into the fact that he held her hand a second longer than necessary, or how the electricity under her skin sizzled at his touch.

Sokka got to the front door and knocked thrice, and quickly the door was swung open to reveal Sokka's long-distance girlfriend, Suki. Though her face was otherwise stern, her midnight eyes were glittering with mirth as she looked at him and flipped her auburn hair back as she said evenly, "And what may I owe this visit?"

Sokka's grin was comically wide as he took her hand and kissed it theatrically. "My dear Suki, succulent flower of the spring, I have come bearing great gifts for you and your master."

Suki giggled and tore her hand away from Sokka, breaking character and sweeping Sokka into a hug before kissing him soundly on the lips. Katara felt her stomach churn at the blatant display of affection, then turned to see Lee making a similar face of faux disgust. Their eyes met and they both started to chuckle at their similar response to Sokka's makeout session.

"Alright, lovebirds, break it up!"

The voice came from inside the house, brusque and exasperated, but Katara could recognize it from anywhere. And when the petite teen stepped out into the sunlight, showing off her gleaming black hair and sightless eyes, Katara beamed and rushed to sweep her into a hug.

"Toph!"

From Katara's chest where her face was basically smothered, Toph grunted, "Hello to you, too, Sweetness."

As Katara let her go, Sokka and Suki disentangled and faced the girls. Katara met her brother's eyes and they nodded to each other, ready to play the part. They both looked to Lee, who had stayed on the sidewalk as the friends exchanged their pleasantries, waiting to be introduced.

And Sokka would take care of that.

"Master Suki, Master Toph Bei Fong, may I introduce Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation!" As he gestured to Lee, the facade unrelentingly believable, the girls both finally turned their attentions to Lee. Toph's feet shifted on the ground, her way of _seeing_ him, and she nodded simply in her typical greeting. But when Katara looked to Suki, her reaction was disturbing, if not surprising.

It was clear her wide eyes were looking at Lee's scar, the one thing that would probably confirm or completely discredit Lee's claim of being Prince Zuko. She visibly swallowed, clearly shaken at his appearance, and her eyes darted to Katara's, silently demanding answers. Though there was no time for that.

Lee bowed politely at the waist, hand over fist in a respectful seal, and he said, "It is an honor to meet you both."

As he straightened up, seemingly unperturbed by Suki's reaction to his face, he met Katara's eyes and gave her a slight smile. It was all going according to plan...

"Why don't we take this inside and I'll make some tea?" Sokka offered as he pressed his hand to the small of Suki's back and led her inside.

It broke her out of her strange trance, and she quickly recovered by flashing him a smile and stepping away towards Katara. "Actually, why don't you and Toph lead Prince Zuko to the sitting room. Katara and I can make the tea."

Her eyes went to Katara's and she cracked a suspicious smile. "Right, Katara?"

The waterbender knew better than to refuse the warrior's request, and she nodded as they all filed into the town home. Suki was quick to usher Katara into the kitchen as Toph led Sokka and Lee to the living room. There was small conversation - Toph sarcastically asking about the weather, Lee bumbling over an answer adorably, Sokka's audible smack to his forehead in frustration - and Katara was eager to get the tea finished and get back out there so they could get the questioning over with.

Suki, however, had a different idea.

"I've never seen one with a scar," she mentioned offhandedly, causing Katara to almost drop the tea pot she had pulled from the shelves. Katara turned around to see Suki already boiling the leaves and her arms were folded over her chest.

"What?"

When Suki looked up from the leaves and met Katara's eyes, there was something shaken yet interrogative in her gaze. "General Iroh showed me a painting of Prince Zuko, from before the attack. Nothing too distinguishable aside from his golden eyes. When I was first hired to be his bodyguard and attendant, I had pressed him for more details; something that Toph couldn't pick up in the interrogation process. He froze up and shook his head, then proceeded to look down at his hands." She stepped closer to Katara and frowned. "I don't want to hurt the old man. And as much as I love Sokka, I know how desperate he is for money to help your grandma. If this _boy_ isn't Prince Zuko, then I don't think I can help you guys anymore. Sokka promised the Prince and I have my doubts already."

Katara's hands trembled as she handed Suki the fresh pot. "Why?"

"Iroh never mentioned a scar," Suki declared, her frown deepening.

Katara shrugged and busied herself with filling a plate with cookies. "Who knows? Maybe he got it after he and Iroh were separated. You know how chaotic Caldera was after the rebellion... He could have gotten it anywhere."

"I'm sure."

Without letting Katara elaborate, Suki put the pot of tea and plate of cookies on a tray tray and brought them into the living room. Toph was sitting primly on the couch, her feet tucked under the low table in front of her - which was a surprising sight for Katara. Lee was sitting across from her in a single chair, while Sokka was leaning against the wall to the side, waiting for the interrogation to start.

Katara met his eyes as Suki set the tray on the table and poured Toph a cup. There was a serious look in his eyes - a first - and Katara swallowed the anxiety that started to fester in her chest at the thought of their plan failing. He gave her a nod, then accepted the cup of tea Suki poured for him with an impish smile. Katara then met Lee's eyes, those golden eyes that seemed to haunt her sleep, and she ignored the phantom throb of pain around her stomach scar. He rose his sole eyebrow in a silent question, but she merely shook her head and gave him a reassuring smile before she settled herself on the opposite wall of Sokka.

Then, the hard part began.

"Alright, _Prince Zuko_ ," Toph started after setting down her cup, her tone bored from a hundred repetitions. "I'm going to ask you a few questions. Where were you born?"

With poise Katara didn't know Lee possessed, he straightened his back and replied, "In the Phoenix Palace in the North Mountains."

As Toph continued asking her questions and Lee kept answering them perfectly, Katara took a deep breath and looked out towards the sun dial outside. Two hashes before midday, at least a full hash since they started. She met Sokka's eyes again, seeing his rapt attention was being focused on Suki, who was now standing behind Toph.

Another glance at the sundial: a hash closer to midday.

Katara sighed. This was going to take a while... If she was honest with herself, she felt like they were getting nowhere. All the questions are simple ones that anyone can learn the answer to, it won't prove anything. Nothing like the words Lee murmured in his delirium after the attack outside the city, or the way he looked _so_ like the Prince it actually made her heart hurt. It made her recall her first meeting with the Prince, back when she first started working in the palace...

 _"You need to breathe more evenly with your kicks."_

 _"You're not a firebender like me, so you wouldn't get it."_

 _"Doesn't mean I can't bend or know what you're supposed to do, silly."_

 _A petulant frown followed by another kata. "Why are you even watching me practice?"_

 _"My master told me to keep an eye on you in case you burnt yourself again," she replied. "I can heal with my waterbending."_

 _Golden eyes flashed and then he looked at his flaming fists, contemplative before he scoffed and tossed another fireball towards the dummy on the other side of the courtyard. "Don't waste your time, I'll be fine."_

 _Before she could retort, Zuko dropped to the ground and spun lithely on his back and hands, causing a wave of fire to get launched across the courtyard. It hit the dummy, but his shout of surprise caught Katara off-guard. She ran to him, immediately summoning her water to her hands and ready to heal him, but he stood and waved her off._

 _"I'm fine," he insisted as he clutched his hand to his chest. "Just tweaked it."_

 _She batted away his hand and quickly cupped his wrist in her hands. It took a little effort, but she soothed the tendons that had become inflamed and moved the joint back into place. "There. Now please, take care of yourself. I don't want to be doing anymore healing on you after this."_

 _Zuko met her eyes - a vibrant and pale gold that glowed like twin suns - and he stiffly thanked her before taking a step back and resuming his training. Katara ignored the way it seemed like he was truly looking at her for the first time, or how his skin was incredibly warm and practically sizzled under her fingertips-_

Toph shifted in her seat, breaking Katara out of her old memory, and milky eyes narrowed as she lowered her teacup and said, "You'll most likely find this an impertinent question, but indulge me. How did you escape during the siege of the palace?"

Katara's stomach dropped and her eyes widened. She never told Lee what happened! Sokka didn't know what happened, either! How she helped the Prince and the General, how she was attacked by rebels but saved her own life using her bending that night. How the scar on her stomach reminded her every day of the sacrifice she made and the sword that tried to bisect her as she protected Zuko's escape...

He was going to fail.

"There was a girl..." Lee stated softly. Not one of the rehearsed things they had told him. This was him, speaking from experience in a soft tone while his eyes were in a faraway place, "She worked in the palace..."

Her heart raced.

"We were in my room, trapped... She opened a panel in the wall..."

Her throat suddenly got dry and all of the moisture went to her eyes. She lifted her gaze to him, his eyes still far off and glowing in the afternoon sunlight. For a moment, time stilled. With his unblemished cheek to her, she clearly saw the boy in the palace, with hair falling in his face and those wide golden eyes looking at her with resolute defiance as he tried to go back for his dagger. His shout to her as she closed the door and pushed the tapestry back into place. The lingering look at it as she swept up the dagger and tucked it into her belt before the main door to the Prince's chambers was thrust open and two rebels came storming in.

How the Prince's shouts for her were clear in her head, even a decade later.

Lee's disbelieving chuckle and shake of his head brought her back once again to the present and away from the burning past.

"I'm sorry, that's crazy," he murmured, mostly to himself. Katara did her best to blink away the tears that built in her eyes. "Walls opening..."

Though Toph could not see her, Katara was sure she could sense the way her heart was thundering in her chest. After all, that's how she would know if Lee was lying. She could definitely tell if Katara's heart was racing like a train. Besides, her slightly moved foot and quirked eyebrow told Katara enough.

Since Lee wasn't quite facing her, Katara took a few steps back and then slunk out of the room as Toph asked him to continue. She didn't miss the sensation of Suki's eyes on her as she retreated to the front yard. Her knees threatened to buckle as breathing escaped her.

Katara could not believe it. Lee was him, Lee was Prince Zuko. There was no denying it now. Her first instinct when she looked into his golden eyes at the destroyed palace was correct, the growing suspicion when they were outside the walls of the city... And she was going to lose him forever because of it.

"Katara!"

She glanced up to see Sokka racing out of the house, eyes bright and excited, and he took her by the shoulders to exclaim, "We did it! Ten thousand yuans, here we come!"

She fought the burn of the tears again. "Sokka, he's him. He's the prince."

Too wrapped up in his celebration, Sokka did not hear her. Instead, he began dancing and stating, "Lee was incredible! I almost believed him! And Toph! No one can _ever_ fool Toph!"

Katara broke her eyes away from Sokka and looked to the doorway, where Lee was emerging with Toph, escorting her to the deck and speaking quietly with the former heiress. Suki was close behind, but her eyes were on Katara. That one glance told her everything: She knew, too.

Sokka saw his girlfriend approach and grinned ear to ear as he asked, "So what now? When do we meet the General?"

Toph sighed and patted Lee on his forearm, signalling it was time for him to stop and let go, and she replied, "I'm afraid not at all."

Sokka stopped his dance, looking to Toph with the most deadpan look Katara thought he could muster. "Come again?"

Suki stepped around Toph and looked to Sokka, guilt clear as she said, "The General simply won't allow it."

Anger and disbelief swelled in Katara's chest and she felt no need stronger than the one to scream. All of this for _nothing_? Why even see Lee if he wasn't going to be allowed to meet the General?! If Iroh doesn't see that Lee _is_ Prince Zuko, then this was all for naught. Gran Gran... the treatment... Gone.

"Now, Suki, Toph, my sakura blossoms, couldn't you think of something?" Sokka cried as he took Suki's hands and clutched them at his chest. "I besiege you to find a way to help reunite this family."

From beside a stricken Lee, Toph spoke up with a wry grin, "Do you like the theater? The Ember Island Players have traveled here to perform, and General Iroh just loves the theater. They're performing _Love Amongst the Dragons_ tonight."

Sokka groaned and began complaining, but Katara did not stop him. Her eyes went to Lee, who was already looking at her. There was confusion in his gaze, probably stemming from the curiosity of her sudden departure and crestfallen look.

"Let's do it," she found herself saying. When the others all looked at her, she merely shrugged and put on the facade that she had been maintaining for the last week. "Whatever it takes to reunite General Iroh with Prince Zuko."

* * *

A hawk landed on his windowsill at sundown, cawing loud enough to jar him from his reading. Zhao looked to it, shocked to see a black ribbon tied around the scroll that laid in its canister.

Failure.

He scowled and went to the bird, quickly dismissing it after he yanked the scroll out. His eyes scanned the contents and he was suddenly thankful he sent someone to monitor Ten's progress in taking out the impostor whelp. Though Ganzu hadn't been a reliable soldier under his command, having him tail the Combustion Killer was a good call. Ganzu reported immediately back that though Ten had almost successfully killed the Zuko impersonator, the two Water Tribesmen that had been accompanying him fought back and ultimately the boy bested Ten by utilizing his only true weakness.

In the end, the assassin was killed by his own exploding hand.

Zhao burned the scroll when he read that the three travelers had made their way to a train station and had entered Ba Sing Se by the time the letter was written. At this rate, they could have already met with General Iroh and they were likely plotting to reclaim the Fire Nation from under his nose as he read that stupid piece of paper.

"I won't let it happen," he muttered to himself as he began pacing the room. He glanced out the window to where the hawk had flown off and kicked himself for sending it away so quickly. He supposed a trip to the hawkery would be in order, as well as a visit to the prison on the other side of the compound.

"But first, the impudent brat..."

The boy claiming to be Prince Zuko needed to be dealt with swiftly. Perhaps sending a Yuyan archer to take him out from afar without the chance of battling. Or maybe June. She owed him a favor and she could easily bring the impostor back to the Fire Nation and let Zhao kill the brat himself.

No, he wanted the world to know that Prince Zuko and General Iroh were still not safe, and the Earth Kingdom was not safe for harboring both of them.

Zhao pulled on his cloak and quickly made his way out of his office. He was unnoticed as he strode out of the building, something that irritated him to no end. As the commanding officer of this post, shouldn't someone be saluting him right about now? It's not like everyone had gone to their quarters for the night already. No one even noticed him when he reached the stairwell that led to the underground prison for a little visit to his favorite inhabitant. After taunting them for a few moments, he'd then send a hawk to his troops in Pohuai to prepare for a trek to the great walled city.

All in time, he had to remind himself.

When he walked to the main door of the prison, the guard stood at attention and bowed. Good, someone here cared about propriety for the higher ranked officers.

"General Zhao," the man said quickly. "She still hasn't spoken."

Gruffly, Zhao pushed past him. "Doesn't matter. I have news for her that I'm sure she will like to know."

His footsteps echoed down the dank hallway, each cell taking the sound as he went closer and closer to the door at the end of the hall. He reached it and the silence was quick, no noise but the breathing from the inhabitant on the other side of the door and the crackling of the flames in the sconces behind him.

"I'm about to depart for the Earth Kingdom," he told the hole in the door. He knew his voice would be heard, regardless of how quiet he was. He couldn't let his plans be leaked quite yet. A preemptive strike would be necessary to take out the Earth Kingdom and the two legitimate threats to his iron-fisted hold on the ruins of the Fire Nation. "I thought you'd like to know."

More ragged breathing was the reply. Honestly, Zhao was surprised this disgusting thing was still alive after ten years of imprisonment, but he figured the environment wasn't _too_ horrible. After all, it would have been cruel to treat his guest like an actual criminal at her age.

"I'm heading to Ba Sing Se," he continued, noticing a shift in the body huddled against the wall. Perhaps an expected torture session, again? He shook his head. Not today. "General Iroh is there and I'm going to finally take him down after all these years."

The breathing halted and the body stiffened.

Zhao smirked.

Time to go in for the kill. "And rumor is Prince Zuko is alive and is in the city now to meet up with his favorite uncle. I'll be killing him, as well."

The torch behind him flickered blue for a quick moment. It was time for him to leave.

* * *

 ** _tbc._**


	5. Chapter 5

**_Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA._**

 ** _A/N_ I'm going to be honest, this chapter is a DOOZY. It's all culminating here; the end of a story. Thanks for all of the reviews and love!**

* * *

"We don't have to fix anything to stay here, right?"

Katara rolled her eyes at her brother's question and sighed, remembering Aang's only condition for letting them stay in the dorms at the temple. Fortunately, Toph just grinned and replied, "Not at all, Snoozles. My house is made of stone. There's nothing here that I can't fix myself."

"Besides," Suki cut in as she wrapped her arm around Sokka's waist, "you're staying with me, honey. Toph has only two spare rooms right now since she decided to redecorate on a whim even though she knew you guys were coming."

Something dawned across Sokka's face and he quickly grinned before pulling Suki closer to his chest. "That works out perfectly! My formal clothes are at your place, anyway."

It was then that Katara realized she didn't have any formal clothes for the theater, because: "Mine don't fit anymore."

"I'll take you to my tailor," Toph said with a shrug. "Get something made for you before tonight. You, too, Sparky."

Lee frowned and met Katara's eyes. " _Sparky_?"

She couldn't help her smile as she said, "You'll get used to it."

After the couple bid them farewell, Toph's driver pulled her carriage around to the front of the house and she climbed in with Katara and Lee tailing close behind. They were quickly carted off to the shopping district again, this time going to a block that had some higher-end stores than the one they had gone to earlier that day. When they pulled up to a building that had a large fountain in the middle of an empty square in front, Toph climbed out and told her driver they would be done in an hour or so.

Both Katara and Lee followed her up the stairs that led to the main entrance, letting the former heiress take charge like she always did. She led them around to the side of the building, avoiding the front entrance, and she pushed open a set of double doors that led inside. Once they stepped in, Katara marveled at the interior: the walls covered from floor to ceiling with hundreds of different fabrics. About a dozen workers were nose deep in different projects, from stitching lace to placing buttons, and Katara noticed there was another door on the wall to her right that seemed to lead to the storefront.

"Here's the deal," Toph started as she finally made their appearance known. All of the workers looked up to their new customers. "We are in need of two outfits by tonight. I can trust you all can take care of my friends?"

It seemed like all of the workers blinked at the same time in surprise and comprehension before immediately dropping what they were working on. There was a flurry of movement from everyone, from a couple of girls coming towards Katara and Lee and leading them back to the fitting areas, and others moving about getting refreshments and others getting fabrics.

There was even a girl who went to the storefront and started telling people that they were closing temporarily.

That was the power of Toph Beifong.

A large woman, full in the chest and a face painted on like a mask - came out of a room straight ahead and her eyebrow rose in a silent question before she sighed and looked to Toph, "This will cost you."

"It always does," Toph merely said as she shrugged and followed Katara to her fitting area. Lee was brought to a completely different section of the room, hidden away from Katara's sight. Toph turned to the big woman and said, "Give him the best you have. He's royalty. You'll know when you look at him."

The woman nodded and replied, "Same colors?"

"And in the style the Dragon likes."

There was no other interaction after that. The large woman went off to where Lee must have been carted off to and Katara was left with a stringy lady with lips puckered like she just sucked juice straight out of a lemon. She was quickly placed on a stool and her outer clothes plucked off as if insignificant. She didn't even have time to try to cover herself before two more seamstresses were coming up to her with measuring tape and little scrolls. They measured her chest, her waist, hips, legs, neck, and the length of her torso over her worn-out wrappings.

It was likely Toph was going to replace those, too.

"So tell me..."

Katara looked to the heiress sitting in the chair right outside of the work area.

"You think this kid is really Prince Zuko?"

Katara's eyes drifted to where Lee - no, _Zuko_ \- was likely being prodded and poked like she was and she sighed as she looked back to her blind friend.

"Because I thought that every impostor I brought to General Iroh was the real deal, too," Toph remarked before taking a sip of some of her tea. "So far since he took me in, I've seen him get his hopes up, only for them to be crushed when it wasn't Zuko that walked through the door. I didn't start screening for him until two years ago, but even then people have been able to answer all of my questions with complete accuracy and honesty. Iroh does not want to be hurt anymore, and I have to ensure that this kid is truly his nephew."

Katara let one of the seamstresses measure her chest again. Her eyes wandered back to where Zuko was, knowing with complete certainty that it was him over there and not some random kid they picked up. Fate had her chase him through the palace and discover him under his own painting. Fate had her save his life and hear him utter his dead sister's name.

Fate had her close enough to see the kindness in his gold depths that she had seen in him as a child.

With a resolute nod, Katara replied, "That is Prince Zuko over there. I have no doubts about it."

Toph hummed and took another drink. "Either you're a really good liar, or that's the truth."

"It's the truth, Toph."

"You're positive?"

"I'd bet my life on it." Katara fidgeted with her hands for a moment before a swatch of fabric was being wrapped around her torso. "He may not realize it because of his amnesia, but I know its him. I may have been in denial at first, but now I know."

No more words were exchanged between the two benders until Katara's fitting session was over. The fat lady came over and said the clothes would both be done in about two hours and she would have them sent over, so Toph led her two guests out of the store and back to the carriage that would bring them back to her home.

Lee- _Zuko,_ she had to keep reminding herself - seemed troubled, like his thoughts were completely elsewhere. Even when they arrived back at the house to see their things moved into their respective rooms. Toph loudly declared she was going to nap before she had to get ready and head over to Iroh's, so Katara decided she was going to take a nice, long bath to ease the stress that had built up in between her shoulders since they first arrived in the city.

However, on the way to the bathroom, she ran into Zuko in the hallway.

"Hey," she greeted. She tried not to focus on the fact that she was just in her old wrappings.

Zuko frowned again, his eyes going to her bare stomach. She almost flushed under his scrutiny, but the focused look on his face told her that he wasn't staring at her out of arousal. It was something else.

"You alright?"

He visibly swallowed before tearing his eyes away from her stomach to meet her gaze. "What happened?"

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

"On your stomach," he clarified, eyes going back to the mentioned spot. "The scar there. I noticed it when you had healed me after the fight yesterday. It's not like mine, but it does look like it had been painful. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I'm just curious."

Something told her it was more than curiosity that spurred his line of questioning. Katara frowned and instinctively moved her towel and clothes to cover the offending blemish. She always had been a little touchy about it. And Zuko had no idea she had worked in the palace back when the siege happened, nor that she was even in Caldera at the time. So she decided it was best to lie. "It happened a long time ago back at home. I got attacked on a hunt by an arctic wolf but was able to live by healing myself."

Zuko looked thoughtful for a moment, as if he was lost in a vision, and then he slowly moved his hand up and placed it on her wrist. Slowly, he pushed her arm away, revealing the discolored skin that stretched across her stomach in an uneven line, and his thumb dragged against the skin. Her breath caught and her heart lodged into her throat, not by the touch but by the look in his eyes. It was remorseful, regretful. For _her._

"I'm sorry this happened to you," he murmured. "It must be a bad memory. I didn't mean to pry. I just..."

"It's fine," she said truthfully. Zuko met her eyes and she swallowed against the hammering in her chest at the look in his eyes. "I may be a great healer, but I can't heal scars. It's just a reminder that I was great enough even back then to save my own life and in all honesty I am grateful for it."

He looked more thoughtful at her comment, then his thumb moved again between the rougher skin of the scar and the smoother expanse around it. She looked at his - a much more gnarly disfigurement - and on its own accord, her hand lifted up and she cupped the left side of his face. He stilled, eyes going wide before darting to hers, and his breath caught in his throat.

"I do sincerely wish I could fix scars." Katara met his eyes and her thumb caressed beneath his eye. "Then you wouldn't have to deal with this."

Zuko sighed, his breath heating the inside of her wrist, and he shook his head slightly. "This is the only face I've known. Why would I change it so I could look like someone else?"

It was a good point, she realized. After all, all he knew was himself as Lee, the Orphan. Nothing as His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. All he had was his tile - and the dagger she had yet to return to him - to help him remember.

Or she could work her magic.

"The offer still stands," she said after lowering her hand from his face. He did the same while his brow furrowed in confusion. With a smile, she clarified, "I can help with the amnesia. Remember what I told you while we were in that boat?"

Realization seemed to dawn on his face and he took in a deep breath. "I... I mean, it wouldn't hurt to try. Especially if I am to meet General Iroh tonight. If I can remember anything that can prove who I am, then I might have a better chance."

 _A better chance at being accepted despite my scar,_ went unspoken.

Katara took his hand and led him to the wash room. As she started the bath water, she pulled a stream out and separated it into to orbs of water to coat each of her hands. Zuko sat on the edge of the tub, his face level with her chest, and she met his bright, bright eyes.

"This might hurt a little, depending on where the damage is that caused the amnesia," she warned him. Zuko nodded, then his eyes slid closed as her hovering hands moved to his temples. She breathed deeply, then let the water seep into his mind.

Immediately, she was met with the tell-tale resistance of an old injury. Something similar to scar tissue near the left hemisphere, right at his temporal lobe. Blunt force trauma, based on the way his brain had evidence of past swelling. It was faint, more like a spiritual injury as apposed to a physical one she could feel on the inside. The second her water probed at it, Zuko inhaled sharply and his hands shot out to grab her hips. Their bruising grip made her forget the intimacy of the location, as well as the fact that she could quite literally feel resistance in his mind against the healing water.

"Relax," she murmured as calmly as she could. She didn't know how much the healing could be hurting him, but she couldn't continue if he kept tensing up. She needed to try to soothe and erase the damage without harming him. When his grip didn't lessen, Katara leaned her head down, her forehead almost touching his, and said softly, "Please. Take a deep breath and don't fight me."

He nodded and did as she said. His hands relaxed in their grip, but did not let go.

She swallowed and pushed on, swirling the water around and letting it take lead in easing the old wound. Based on the way the tissues were fighting her, she had to guess shock also had something to do with the damaged memory. So, as she was taught by the palace healers and later by healers in her tribe, she coaxed the wound with her water, encouraging new growth and accelerated healing where capable. Sweat beaded on her forehead in her effort, the slow and meticulous process taking much longer than she first realized. Vaguely, she felt Zuko move one of his hands and the sound of running water stopped.

It took a while, but some of the old bruising and scarring started to ease. She could feel the flow of her water start to become smoother through the injured areas, but there were some that she knew would take a lot more time and energy to heal entirely. Maybe even some Spirit Oasis water due to the length and severity of the injury.

Katara moved the water through the area one more time for good measure. She was starting to feel a little faint and if she was honest with herself, she knew if she didn't figure out some breakthrough by now it was never going to happen.

She pulled the water out and discarded it in the sink. If she had paid any attention, she would have seen the darker tint to the water as it went down the drain, but she was too focused on steadying herself and fighting the dizziness that had taken over her. Zuko's hands tightened their hold on her hips and she was grateful for his presence, because if she had pushed herself anymore she would have fallen face-first into the bathtub.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and met his gaze. "Anything?"

His eyes narrowed in thought, like he was sifting through his mind to see if any new information had wedged itself in there without him noticing. After a long moment full of bated breaths, he sighed and shook his head. "No. Nothing."

Katara sagged with defeat, her weariness weighing heavily on her chest. "I'm sorry. I guess since its so old I can't fix anything. I wish I could do more."

Zuko offered her a brief smile and shrugged with his one shoulder before standing. "You tried. That's what counts. I'll let you bathe and I'm going to go get ready with Sokka."

He didn't let her reply, because he was already hustling out of the room and closing the door behind him. He must have gotten his hopes up.

Keeping up with honesty, she sort of had, too.

* * *

Lee didn't let his dismay show when Katara had asked him if he remembered anything, because his dismay wasn't over _failure,_ but rather how after the water seeped out of his head and he opened eyes to her, he suddenly had the odd urge to kiss her. Because she did not fail. Not entirely, at least.

A sound echoed around his head - laughter. And the smell of the bath soaps that Katara had in her tub were familiar enough that he could now name it at the drop of a hat: fire lilies. But the problem with it all is he couldn't tell himself _why_ he was remembering these things as opposed to something important, like whether or not he was actually Prince Zuko.

It was irritating and it was making his head hurt even more.

He stumbled into his room and pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead as his other hand pulled his hair out of his top knot. Maybe that's what was making his head hurt. He shook out his hair, letting it fall into his eyes, and he moved over to the vanity that his bag rested upon. He met the eyes in his reflection, still seeing the golden eyes and the comet scar that stretched across a little less than half of his face.

With a frown, he covered the left side of his face with his bag and stared at the other side. Was he supposed to recognize something there? Which of his parents did he favor? Was he a spitting image of his father, or did he look more like his mother? Or did he have features from both that made him distinctly their's as well as himself?

He huffed and dropped his bag, only to freeze when he saw no scar in the mirror.

A shout of surprise came out of his mouth as he stumbled back and fell onto his bottom on the floor. He blinked hard a few times, trying his damnedest to calm his racing heart, and stood as he shook his head and looked back at his reflection. He almost relieved to see his scar was still there. He prodded the mottled flesh while his heart fluttered uncomfortably in his chest. The way he looked... That's what...

"No."

He tore his eyes away from the mirror and went to leave. After all, Sokka wanted to get ready together and he had plenty of alone time with Suki already. He raced out of the house, grabbing the package that was clearly his outfit from the seamstress off of the foyer table and left the house. The carriage and driver were waiting outside, as if they knew he was going to be wanting to leave, and he hopped in the car as he told the driver to take him to Suki's.

Anything to get him away from his racing thoughts.

Had he paid attention, he would have seen Toph in her window, _"watching"_ him as he left.

Lee watched as the sparse buildings passed his window, anxiously waiting for the carriage to arrive at Suki's place so he could just zone out and let Sokka pluck at him so he looked well. A dull throb ached through his head and he could see a golden man in his mind's eye-

 _Curse of Agni-_

He flinched and rubbed his temple. Why did he think of that again? The gold seemed to simmer behind his eyes and he tried to shake it away, to no avast. He took another deep breath, then rubbed his eyes.

"Sir?"

Lee sat up and looked at the window. The driver was holding the door open for him, waiting patiently for him to exit the carriage. It seemed they had already arrived at Suki's house while he was starting to panic. He took another deep breath and stepped out of the carriage.

* * *

Getting ready with Sokka was just as much of a tortuous affair as it had been that morning. Lee was certain the man had such particular taste that absolutely nothing would be good enough for their potential meeting with Iroh that night. While Lee dressed in the outfit the tailor had made for him - a traditional red and black Fire Nation-style robe with gold detailing that would sparkle in the light - Sokka was busy trying to decide how Lee was to wear his hair, and if he should wear any sort of jewelry or ornamental things that would show his status.

Suki had left about an hour into Sokka's tirade of trying to find the perfect socks Lee should wear with his boots, and she patted the orphan on the shoulders with a sympathetic smile.

Though there was something in her eyes that made him think she was pitying him for more than the fact that he had to spend time with her boyfriend when he was in this _mood_.

They settled on a full topknot with a decorative flame pin, and black socks because Lee did not want to wear any of Sokka's old pairs that for some reason were filling up an entire drawer in Suki's dresser. Once Lee was finished, he turned and met Sokka, who had dressed in his navy blue formal tunic and trousers - both lined with fur and leather stitching - and a strand of hair was left out and braided with beads hanging from the end.

Both looked like respectable people who enjoyed going to the theater.

At sundown, the carriage arrived to take them to the theater hall. No one else was inside, and at first Lee thought they were going to go pick up the girls and ride together. However, the driver must have read his mind because he informed them that Master Toph had to meet with General Iroh and escort him to the theater, while Masters Katara and Suki were already there waiting for them.

He stayed quiet for the entire ride, his nerves starting to get the worst of him. He ached to fiddle with the pendant under his shirt, but Katara's warnings of propriety rang in his already ringing ears all the way to the theater hall. The carriage stopped, and Sokka stepped out first before letting Lee out after him. The boys walked together up the grand staircase - at least four flights of low stairs - and Lee's nerves started to increase tenfold.

Inside this place was a man that may or may not be his last family in this world.

"Hey, there's the girls!" Sokka said, breaking Lee out of his nervous thoughts.

His line of sight followed where Sokka was pointing and Lee had to stop his jaw from falling onto the floor. Standing at the top of the stairs was Suki and Katara, both dressed in their absolute best. Suki was wearing a traditional green kimono with decorative gold armor pieces and a golden fan of all things. Her face was painted similarly to the portraits he remembered seeing of the Kyoshi Warriors from the past, minus the white coloring that would have covered her entire face. Sokka went to her, embracing her with a wide grin, and Lee's eyes went to Katara.

His breath left his body in one fell swoop.

Her hair was curled and pinned into an elaborate bun with pearls stuck in random places like tiny stars. Her makeup was subtle, but enough to enhance her already-gorgeous features. Her dress was what blew his mind. Behind the baggy tunics and pants was a body that even the Gods would be envious of. Her waist was small, while her hips were curved perfectly and hugged snugly by a pale blue qipao.

He barely registered Suki telling them that she had to go meet up with Toph and General Iroh, nor how Sokka said he would meet them inside after getting their tickets. He was just too entranced by her beauty.

"Lee?"

He blinked a few times and focused on her mirthful smile. "Yeah?"

"You ready to go in?"

He nodded as he bit his lip and took a step towards her. Boldly, he took her hand - bare save for a thin woven bracelet - and he pressed a kiss to her smooth knuckles. The way her cheeks turned a delightful ruddy color made his stomach do a strange flip and his heart to hammer even louder in his ears.

"You look wonderful tonight," he murmured against her skin. At her flustered sputtering, Lee started to chuckle and they began walking inside. Sokka flagged them down and led them to their loge box on the second floor, almost too high to see the play itself but strategically on the same floor as General Iroh's reserved box. They took their seats on the balcony, mostly hidden in the dark, and Katara handed him a pair of opera glasses.

"He's right across from us," she murmured into his ear. Lee blinked a few times before raising the miniature binoculars to his eyes and looking across the hall to the opposite box. He spotted Toph immediately, almost unrecognizable with her neat hair and deep green dress, and Suki behind her with her formal armor.

Upfront, sitting right at the railing, was a portly older man, grayed in the hair and beard and eyes so wise Lee could tell all the way from where he was sitting. His heart did a painful lurch in his chest at the sight of who Sokka and Katara believed to be his uncle - His Royal Highness General Iroh, the firstborn son of the late Fire Lord Azulon, and the older brother to the late Fire Lord Ozai, Crown Prince Zuko's father.

The already dimmed lights darkened even further as the crowd started to clap, including General Iroh.

As the play commenced, Lee continually brought the binoculars up to his eyes so he could peek over at the General. The old man was thoroughly invested in the story, as seen on the rapt attention he kept on the stage. However, there was a melancholy about him that Lee could sense all the way on the other side of the theater hall.

This play was not something had he held in fond memory, Lee surmised.

Vaguely, he realized he had pulled his Pai Sho tile out of under his shirt and started fiddling with it again with his free hand. Almost immediately, a cool hand rested on his, tearing his fingers away from the worn wood, and wove her fingers between his. Lee turned and met Katara's eyes, a dark night sky set into her tan face, and he had to swallow past the thickness that suddenly tightened his throat.

Katara leaned towards him, her lips barely grazing the skin of his unblemished ear, and she murmured, "It's unbecoming of a Prince to fidget."

Her tone was teasing, but the reminder of her lessons and her former exasperation regarding his habit of twirling his tile made him smile.

"You're going to be fine," she remarked further as her fingers tightened around his.

"How can you be so sure?" He felt his confidence was started to waiver. He had gotten this far, but something made him feel like it was all a fluke. "What if you're wrong?"

Even in the dim lighting of their loge box, Lee could see Katara's eyes shining in earnest. "We'll just have to find out, but I don't think I am."

Something in her words, so confident and honest, made Lee's nerves relax ever-so-slightly. He could feel relief flood in his lungs, dragging out his breath in a soft sigh. Boldly, he brought their joined hands together and pressed her knuckles to his mouth for a chaste kiss, just as he had done when they first arrived at the theater.

"Thank you," he whispered honestly against her skin. He met her eyes and noticed her cheeks had gone ruddy again. He decided not to say any more. Instead he lowered their hands to the armrest between them and remained content with watching the rest of this act of the play.

 _Deep and steady_ , he had to remind himself when he was breathing. It didn't have to do with his bending, but his nerves. All he could do was glance back over at Iroh's loge box and think to himself, _Please remember me._

* * *

Intermission came too quickly, and soon they were all waiting anxiously for Suki to arrive and let them know they were in the clear to go to General Iroh's box. Sokka insisted on staying behind with Suki, and that Katara would be able to take care of the introductions for _"Prince Zuko,"_ while Katara internally seethed that he just wanted their suite to himself so he could canoodle with Suki and not get interrupted.

Instead of arguing, considering their small window of time in which they could meet Iroh, Katara rubbed the hilt of the pearl dagger she had strapped to her thigh under her skirt for good luck and led Zuko through the throngs of people in the hall, their hands joined the whole time. Her heart was in her throat, beating in way that was more akin to a flutter, and her nerves were starting to make her hands and stomach quiver in worry. Though she was certain this was Zuko holding her hand and walking with her to his destiny, she didn't know if Iroh was going to be receptive to their unscheduled visit.

After all, he told Toph he was done looking for his nephew. And Katara coming with Sokka, leading Lee to believe he was the lost Prince, could easily not work in her favor. All she could do is have trust in her own gut and believe that Zuko was going to convince Iroh he was truly his nephew - which in fact was the truth.

Then she could leave with Sokka with the money needed to pay for her Gran's treatment.

When they arrived at Iroh's suite door, Katara took a deep, unsteady breath and turned to Zuko.

"Are you ready?"

His pale eyes were locked on the door, his jaw set mulishly, and he nodded before looking back at her with an uneasy smile. "Let's do this."

She felt her lips pull up - a little more like a grimace, if she was honest with herself - and she took a steadying breath. "Alright. Let me introduce you and I'll let you know when you can come in, okay?"

If Zuko had seen her uneasy nervousness, he did not show it. Instead, he nodded and chewed on his lower lip as she turned towards the door.

Three knocks and the door was quickly opened by an unimpressed blind earthbender. Her deadpan face as clear, but it quickly morphed to what Katara called her heiress mask and she politely bowed before saying in an oddly loud voice, "May I help you?"

Katara grinned and turned around to give Zuko another reassuring look before she stepped inside the suite and closed the door behind herself. She steeled herself as she put on her best Sokka impression and she said, "Please inform His Royal Highness, General Iroh, that I have found his nephew, His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Zuko. He's waiting to see him just outside the door."

Toph returned her smile and blocked her from further entering the suite. "I'm very sorry, ma'am. But the General will see no one."

Katara could see the gray-haired head of the General turn from his seat, his eyes clearly angry even at this distance. "Please, I am trying to enjoy my late sister-in-law's favorite play alone. You may tell that impertinent young woman that I have seen enough Crown Prince Zukos to last me a lifetime!"

Toph hesitated, her honest surprise seeping into her facade for a split second before she stepped forward and placed her hand on Katara's arm. "You better go. It's not a good time..."

As the girl started ushering Katara out of the suite, she started to panic and plead, "No! Please, let us-"

Iroh cut in sharply and stated loud enough for them all to here. "I wish to live the remainder of my lonely life in peace."

A pitying look came across Toph's face, the act dropped, and she murmured, "Come on, I'll see you to the door."

Katara frowned and shook her head with determination. They were not going to stop them, not when they've gotten this far. With the finesse of a waterbender, she spun under Toph's arm and ducked away towards where Iroh was sitting. She met Toph's blank eyes, willing her silently to not interfere, and she shut the curtains that separated the seats from the rest of the suite. She noticed Iroh was aware of her presence, but had done nothing to deter her advance.

So she smoothed out her qipao and went to sit next to him. "Your Highness-"

"I thought I asked you to leave." His voice was oddly calm.

Katara slipped into the seat, suddenly very conscious of the weariness in the lines of the old General's face. She gathered her courage and said, "Sir, my name is Katara. I used to work in the palace-"

Iroh snorted and his lips pulled up into a crooked and cynical smirk, just like Zuko's, and he replied, "That's one I haven't heard before."

"Please, just hear me out-"

Iroh stood, his movements slow but still graceful like the royal he was, and he looked down his nose at her. His amber eyes seemed sinister in the low light and involuntarily, Katara shrunk down into her seat.

"I know what you're after," he sneered with such a force Katara wondered what the world would be like if he had no abdicated the throne all those years ago. "I've seen it before! People who train young men in the royal ways, and color their hair and change their clothes to look like my Zuko."

As Iroh started to leave Katara stood and went after him. "Your Highness, please listen-"

"Haven't _you_ been listening?" Iroh cut in sharply, but stern enough to not seem rude or arrogant. His eyes met hers and she saw the fight that he had been fighting for a decade shine in the swirling gold. "I do not care how much you made this boy look like him, to act like him, or know what he knows, but it will _never_ be him."

"General Iroh," Katara pleaded, fighting the tears of embarrassment and shame that built in her eyes. "This time it is him! Believe me-"

"Katara," Iroh interrupted again, not caring about her shining eyes or the truth in her pleas, and the disdain in his voice grew, "I've heard of your name. You and your brother, children of a chieftain in the Southern Water Tribes. But you've been conning up and down Caldera, looking for someone who looked like my Zuko so you could get the reward money."

Katara couldn't believe the direction this had turned. How did he learn those things? "But, General, we've come all the way from the Fire Nation to see you-"

"And others have come from Omashu or Whale Tail Island," he dismissed quickly as he pushed the curtain open once more. "How far were you willing to go to get my money? Do you even care about what this _fraud_ could do to an old man's heart?"

He turned to Toph and ordered wearily, "Get her out of my sight."

As sympathetic her blank eyes could muster, Toph looked at Katara and started to steer her out of the room.

"Please!" Katara cried over her shoulders. "You have to believe me! It's really Prince Zuko this time!"

She didn't miss the painful look on Iroh's face as Toph finally pushed her out of the loge box and shut the door behind her. Katara pressed her forehead to the wood and sighed, the tears finally falling. With a steeling breath, she turned around, only to freeze in her tracks when she saw Zuko standing right in front of her, his eyes wide and his hurt radiating off of him.

She had to remind herself to stop calling him that when he didn't know, not really. "Lee..."

"It was all a lie, then."

She couldn't believe what was happening. "No, Lee, please-"

Disbelief was clear in his eyes when he took a step back away from her. "You used me... I thought... You _lied_ to me! I was just part of your plan to get his money!"

Katara went to him and made to take his hands, to hold them and comfort him like she had just done before they went to Iroh's box, and she cried, "No! It started that way, but as we got to know you and I realized that you really are Prince Zuko-!"

He ripped his hands away from hers and she could see tears start to form in his eyes. Her heart broke when the first tumbled down his scarred cheek. " _Stop_! From the beginning I believed you! I thought that you really thought I was him! And now - ?! I'm _done_! Count me out!"

He stormed away from her, wiping furiously at his face and disappearing into the crowds. She shouted after him, but he was gone.

Her heart thundered in her chest and she looked around frantically. The other guests that had been nearby were still staring, so she ran to where Zuko had gone. She burst through the doors to see it was starting to rain, but he was nowhere in sight.

However, Iroh's carriage was.

Thinking as quickly - and to be honest, as impulsively - as she could, Katara used the rain that was falling and swept the driver off of his seat and froze him in the bushes that lined the sidewalk. She rushed down the stairs, grabbed a cloak out of the cabin and pulled it over her head and shoulders. She felt that Iroh would want to flee the theater as soon as possible, so she positioned herself on the driver's seat and grabbed the reins for the ostrich horses.

Like clockwork, Suki must have left Sokka and joined Toph to escort General Iroh down the stairs and into the carriage, leaving the play before it was finished, all three holding umbrellas up to shield them from the rain. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Toph froze, her sightless eyes wide and pointed in Katara's direction while her right foot was pointed towards the unconscious driver in the bushes, and Katara stared her and Suki down. Suki grasped the hilt of the katana hidden in her kimono, but Katara shook her head and pleaded with her eyes to let her take Iroh.

Suki would know where they would go.

With a nod, the warrior took Toph's arm and tugged her towards the carriage behind them.

"Miss Toph? Aren't you joining me?"

All three girls froze and Katara bit her lip as Toph visibly debated whether or not she wanted to out Katara for future attempted kidnapping. After a long moment, punctuated by the rain hitting the concrete, Toph gave Iroh a soft smile and shook her head. "I have a friend staying at my place so I'm going to go stay with Suki and her boyfriend tonight. We have to catch up on some things."

"As you wish, little Lady. Please, stay safe on these slick roads."

"You, too, General Iroh," Suki said to him while her eyes were on Katara. "Take care of yourself."

Iroh let out a deep belly laugh and replied, "I may be old, but there many tricks in my sleeves."

"I think you mean ' _up your sleeves_ ,' General Iroh," Toph chuckled as she and Suki walked away. There were lingering glances at Katara, but she did not falter. With a snap of the reins, the ostrich horses started to gallop. They gained speed quickly and she turned them down the street that would lead to Toph's townhouse, instead of going straight to Iroh's home.

"Excuse me, Hong? We missed our turn," Iroh called from the backseat. "And please, slow down!"

Katara felt this moment was better than any, so she pulled down her hood and looked back through the window. "I'm not Hong. And I will not slow down. Not until you listen."

Iroh's eyes were wide with shock and anger, and she was suddenly reminded that he was a firebender. "How _dare_ you! Stop this carriage immediately!"

Katara looked forward and spotted Toph's townhouse right up ahead. She slowed the ostrich horses and climbed out of the driver's seat. When she opened the door to the passenger area, Iroh was still staring at the partition window.

"Please, just talk to him."

The dark golden eyes narrowed, but did not look at her. "You're very persistent."

Fed up, Katara lifted the hem of her dress at the slit and unhooked the dagger from her garter. With both hands, she presented the sheathed weapon to the man. "Do you recognize this?"

Iroh finally turned and looked at her, then the trinket in her hands. His eyes went wide, and with a trembling hand he reached out and grabbed it from her. He pulled the dagger out of its home and she could see the confusion clear on his face. "How did you get this?"

"I know you've been hurt," Katara murmured, causing Iroh to lift his gaze to her and then back to the inscription on the blade. "But it's possible he's just as lost and alone as you."

Iroh's jaw wobbled, only slightly, but enough for Katara to know she had gotten through to him. Without another word, she stepped to the side and waited for him to exit the carriage.

The rain kept falling, puddling on the ground and ruining the silk of her dress. But she didn't care. She would wait out there all night if that's what it took. The light was on in Zuko's room, so she knew he was in there. Waiting.

And after what felt like a lifetime, General Iroh stepped out of the carriage.

* * *

Lee stormed out of the theater, apathetic to the stares and pointed fingers as he stomped out into the rain. He glared at the offending sky, then scoffed as he turned down to the street that led to their temporary home. He couldn't believe what was happening. Sokka and Katara had given him a _purpose_ , had taken him from his prison in Caldera to a potential new life in Ba Sing Se, where he could have possibly found the family he had been missing all along. They convinced him he could be - no, _was_ \- the missing Prince Zuko. He looked like the Prince, was the same age as the Prince, it all fit.

But it was all a _lie_.

They were only using him to get the reward money. As soon as they got what they wanted, they were going to leave him high and dry. And then Iroh would realize he really wasn't Prince Zuko and abandon him too, then he would be all alone once more.

He stomped up the stairs of Toph's modest Upper Ring home and slammed the door shut behind him. The whole house was empty, with one lantern lit above the dining table. He tore the outer robe of his outfit off and discarded it on the floor outside of his room, then ripped his hair out of the tight topknot and tossed the minuscule flame ornament across the room as his hair fell back into his eyes. He left his door open, no need to close it when he would be passing through it again in a few moments, and he quickly started shoving his things into his bag.

 _How dare they?!_ Use him like that and play him to believe he was some sort of Prince!

It's not like anyone back in Caldera would miss him. No, he was just an orphan. No one would know he was even gone. And now he was here, and no one would know if he left here, either. He hesitated for a split second, his hands clenching on the old fabric of the shirt he wore out of the Fire Nation, the stitching from Katara's repairs immaculate and almost invisible to his eyes. His knuckles turned white in their fierce grip and he bit back the cry of dismay and betrayal as he tossed it into the trashcan next to his bed.

There was a knock on the frame of his door and Lee grit his teeth. "Leave me alone, Katara. I don't want to hear it."

Heavy footsteps fell upon the carpeted floor and Lee glared over his right shoulder to yell at the waterbender once more. Only, it wasn't her. Standing in the sitting area of his room was His Royal Highness, General Iroh of the Fire Nation.

His eyes widened and he looked back to his suitcase, his heart suddenly hammering in his chest. "Oh. I'm sorry, I thought you were-"

"I know exactly who you thought I was," Iroh stated, his voice rough with age and exhaustion. He started walking towards him again. "What I want to know is, who are _you_?"

Lee inhaled heavily and laid his hands on top of his bag. "I was hoping you could tell me."

"Is that why you traveled all the way from Caldera? For me to answer a question I do not know how to answer?"

Lee shook his head, still refusing to look Iroh in the eyes, and he replied, "No. I suppose I can't expect you to."

"I've had many people come to me and claim they were my nephew," Iroh stated, walking past Lee and going to his window, where the rain started to pick up and pattered against the glass. "So many, I have lost count. I'm old, and I am tired. As much as I love and miss my nephew, I know now it is a lost cause to keep searching for him. I am done with being tricked."

"I'm not trying to trick you," Lee said. He straightened and looked right to Iroh's shoulders. "I just want to know if I have a family."

Iroh did not turn from the window as he asked, "How are you certain that it is mine that you belong to? Because the Water Tribesmen said so?"

Lee hung his head and fought the tightness in his throat. He didn't expect Iroh to be so... hostile. Instinctively, Lee reached under his damp shirt and pulled out the tile that he had worn every day since he was found on the docks. He gazed at it for a long moment, taking in the long-memorized features of his only clue to his past. The paint was chipped and fading, but the White Lotus and inscription were forever imprinted in his mind. It was what brought him here: the only token of his past and the words of a phantom in his mind.

As he stared at his little treasure, Iroh had turned around and Lee heard him inhale sharply. He lifted his gaze to see Iroh staring with wide eyes at the scar on his face, almost trembling in his place. The shame Lee felt when people stared at the scar returned tenfold and tears started to prickle his good eye as he turned his face so it was out of Iroh's sight.

"I'm sorry-"

"How... how did you get that scar, young man?"

Lee looked back to see Iroh had moved to sit down on the chaise under the window, the stunned look still on his face. When he patted the spot next to him, Lee took that as an invitation to join him and he warily approached the seasoned General.

Closer to the older man, Lee could really take in the age that lined his face as the weariness in his features. But his eyes, his eyes were keen and clear as they looked at Lee's and the scar that framed one.

"I don't remember," he stated softly, dropping his gaze to his lap. From this angle, now Iroh could only see the untouched part of his face. "I woke up in the hospital one day with the burns and this-" He lifted the tile briefly before fiddling with it again. Princely-ness, be damned. "I'm sorry to have wasted your time, General Iroh-"

Suddenly, something hit him like a train. The smell of ginseng. His mind was brought back to a sitting room, much like this but dark maroon and brown and gold, and the smell of tea filling the room as a man with a topknot poured two cups over a pai sho table.

"Ginseng...?"

He looked up to Iroh, who still had that stunned look, and the General nodded. "My favorite tea."

A memory tickled the vestiges of his consciousness, with tea and the afternoon sun and a board with painted tiles, just like the one around his neck...

"And we would drink it as we played pai sho," Lee murmured, eyes unfocused as he looked towards the floor, "to help clear the mind and help me focus. Because I could never play without getting distracted..."

He glanced up and noticed Iroh's hand was hovering in the air, a question clear in his glistening eyes, and Lee turned to him fully, silently allowing him. No one other than Katara and the healers had touched his scar, but when Iroh placed his fingers against the mottled flesh, it seemed... right. Like he _knew_.

"The night of the rebellion," the older man whispered as his face searched Lee's. "Prince Zuko and I... we fled the palace by the order of my brother. A young girl who worked in the palace helped us escape the Prince's bedroom by the servant's passages... While we were in there, some of the roofing collapsed-"

Lee's heart surged into his chest as the memory of fire searing his skin came rushing back to him. He remembered the fallen beam, a bearded man grabbing the wood and burning his hands, and helping him stand even though the pain from the burns and his probably-broken shoulder made his vision fuzzy and his steps uneven.

As he tried to steady his breathing, Lee gingerly took Iroh's wrist and pulled it from his face, then looked down at the slight scarring on the palms of his old hands. Not as bad as his face, but still noticeable to those who were familiar with fire.

"We match," Lee finally said, his voice watery and disbelieving. A tear fell out of his eye and landed right on Iroh's palm and the older man laughed. When Lee looked up at him with curiosity, Iroh was looking at the tile dangling from his neck, his own tears falling from his face.

With a sniff, the older man started singing softly, _"It's a long, long way to Ba Sing Se-"_

Like second nature, Lee joined in, _"But the girls in the city, they look so pretty..."_

Iroh cracked a smile that reached from ear to ear, and took Lee's shoulders in his hands as they both finished the song, _"And they kiss so sweet that you've really got to meet the girls from Ba Sing Se..."_

Relief erupted in his chest, overwhelming him entirely and Lee couldn't help but sob as Iroh cried and pulled him into a hug and held him close.

"Oh, my dear nephew," Iroh cried as he squeezed him a little tighter. "Oh, Zuko!"

He buried his face into Iroh's neck, strangely feeling _so_ familiar and comfortable in the man's embrace, and he took in that long-lost scent of ginseng and smoke. The memories came rushing back like a torrential rain: the turtleducks in the pond that sat in the middle of his mother's favorite garden, Iroh teaching him to play the tsungi horn, his mother singing him to sleep when he was sick, his little sister snuggling under his blankets when a thunderstorm came rushing through the valley.

His father patting him on the shoulder when he perfected a firebending form and claimed he would make a fine Fire Lord one day.

He found his family. He found his home. He _was_ Prince Zuko.

* * *

Katara pulled the last of the pearls out of her curls and hung her head, letting the hair fall in protective curtains around her face.

They had done it. Lee was actually Prince Zuko and they reunited him with General Iroh.

And she was going to never see him again.

"Kat?"

She looked up from the sink and into the mirror to see Sokka standing in the doorway, still wet from the rain. Suki must have told him where she was.

"What you did..."

"I did what I had to." She was firm in her resolve. She had to be. And she would not break.

Sokka approached her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, hugging her from behind, and he rested his chin on the top of her head. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"That I knew for sure that Lee was Zuko since we were meeting with Toph?" Katara sighed and let her eyes slip closed. She didn't want to cry, not now, but the tear that slid out betrayed her resolve. "I don't think you would have believed me."

"I would have," he whispered immediately and tightened his hold. "We did it, though. Iroh spoke with L- Zuko and he knows it's true. Turns out the scar he has, he got burnt while running away from the palace."

Another tear slid down her other cheek.

"Right after you helped him escape through the servant's passages."

Her breath was shaky as she let it in.

"Katara, I wish you had told me about what happened that night," Sokka murmured as he lowered his arms from her and turned her around. "I know it's how you got that scar on your stomach, and how mom got that one burn on her arm. But I had no idea that you were the reason why General Iroh and Prince Zuko lived."

When she didn't say anything, Sokka took her head in his hands and pressed their foreheads together. "He's agreed to give us the reward money as promised. We'll be able to pay for the treatment for Gran Gran."

"I don't want it," Katara let slip, as well as her tears. "It's tainted money from deceiving Zuko."

"Is it really deception if we reunited a family?" Sokka said as he straightened up and wiped away her tears. "Yeah, it started out that way but Lee was really Zuko all along. Our reasoning for getting it done may not have been as ethical, but we pulled it off. We helped repair a broken family."

Katara looked out the window over his shoulder to see the rain had kept pouring. "And we'll never see him again."

* * *

The air was damp, promising rain. Zhao frowned and stepped off of the gang plank that led to the dock of the Pohuai Stronghold's harbor, dismissing greetings from the Admiral in charge and heading straight to the battalion regiments.

"Are you ready to depart, Admiral Shun?"

"Of course, my Lord," Shun replied with a bow. "The Yuyan Archers have been prepared, and we have several tanks and kimodo rhinos that would be able to assist you."

"No need," Zhao gruffly stated as he waved him off. "We are going for a stealthy approach. I want to arrive in Ba Sing Se in less than a fortnight. Make sure you have your fastest riders and -"

"Lord Zhao!"

He spun around to meet the eyes of General Shinu, who was tugging along a cloaked person down the gang plank. "Shinu. Who might this be?"

He had a suspicion - after all, he _had_ left that prison door unlocked and told the guards to turn the other cheek - but he wanted to see what his men would do.

It would determine his next move.

"A stowaway, sir." Shinu tugged the person forward and pushed the hood of the cloak back to reveal the gleaming golden eyes of his prisoner. Zhao grinned and folded his arms behind his back.

"Princess Azula," he greeted with a sly grin. "I see you decided to come with me after all."

A resounding gasp from the men present told him that they were unaware of the Princess's survival after the rebellion. As far as he knew, only himself, his close circle of advisors, and the prison staff had known of her existence. After all, he intended for that to happen. That night, after he beheaded Fire Lord Ozai and proceeded to find Lady Ursa and her daughter, Princess Azula, running away through the gardens, Zhao saw an opportunity and he took it. He snagged the young princess and killed her mother, right in front of her eyes, then told her of her father's death, and the oncoming death of her brother.

The poor girl fainted and was quickly imprisoned.

Though, he could not find himself to kill her. Not yet, at least. She had a purpose in his master plan, but he didn't know how back then. So he let her live, if barely, and kept her education and training up, but not without limits. She was a prodigy and he was certain she had been plotting his death for the past ten years, but he wanted her to know how powerful _he_ was. He had every chance to make sure she died, either from starvation or a sword to her neck, and he stayed his hand just enough to buy her silence and loyalty. She owed him her life, and he was damn sure she would not come all this way just to kill _him._ Not to mention the fact that he had been practically grooming her to do his bidding, including right now.

The fact that she learned that her brother was still alive and had yet to rescue her was perfect fuel to get her to remain under his thumb and secure his place as the defacto ruler of the Fire Nation. He was certain if she believed that he was alive after all this time, but had yet to take back their nation from Zhao's hands, Princess Azula would resent him for his weakness.

Her glare told him that much, and he smiled at her toned down look. A simple topknot and peasant's clothing, probably stolen off the line in someone's backyard. A demotion that she was used to after all this time, despite her status.

"Are you prepared for the journey?" he asked her, ignoring how she had not remarked on being discovered.

With a nod of her head, Azula's answer was simple enough. And firm enough to spur his men back into full force for their journey across the Earth Kingdom.

* * *

 ** _tbc._**


End file.
